<p>“Prepping” — in this case for an oral exam in Riverdale’s notorious Integrated Liberal Studies, an interdisciplinary class laden with primary sources instead of standard textbooks — did not start the week before the exams, the mother pointed out. She said she had paid Mr. Iyer’s company $750 to $1,500 each week this school year for 100-minute sessions on Liberal Studies, a total of about $35,000 — just shy of Riverdale’s $38,800 tuition. </p>
<p>Last year, she said, her tutoring bills hit six figures, including year-round SAT preparation from Advantage Testing at $425 per 50 minutes; Spanish and math help from current and former private school teachers at $150 an hour; and sessions with Mr. Iyer for Riverdale’s equally notorious interdisciplinary course Constructing America, at $375 per 50 minutes.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>“More and more you have ambitious and intellectually curious students signing up for difficult classes,” said Mr. Alagappan, whose 200 tutors bill $195 to $795 for 50 minutes (though he said pro bono tutoring accounted for 26 percent of the work). “It’s no longer O.K. to have one-on-one coaching for sailing but not academics.”</p>
<p>Granted, I haven’t read the entire article, but you’re telling me they paid $73,800 in tuition and tutoring alone? So what happens if Jane or Jack doesn’t get into their preferred university…after this investment? If I was paying $38,800 in tuition to begin with it had better be a darn good education, not one that needed supplementing. I really, really try not to judge. If people are not asking me for money then I generally don’t give two hoots what they do with their own funds, but I seriously don’t get this at all. I have nothing against private school or tutors for that matter…but $73,800 in a single year?! Just…wow.</p>
<p>note: Just finished the article and I still feel the same way.</p>
<p>Our kids got free tutoring from their private school teachers. Of all 12+ years our kids were at that school, we have never paid for any tutoring for regular school work. In one instance when I asked D2´s chemistry teacher to tutor her on SAT II, he refused to take any payment from us, but worked with her 3+ hours a week for a month. I ended up giving him an airline ticket to Europe purchased out of our miles. </p>
<p>I have the same sentiment - if I am already paying 30+K for private school, why would I pay additional money for tutoring.</p>
<p>I knew that tutoring was fairly common, but I had no idea that people spent $100,000 a year on tutoring. I don’t think the parents had any complaints with the quality of the education, they just want to make sure their kid is going to get an A. I wonder if the “Constructing America” course is that difficult?</p>
<p>Riverdale is one of three high priced private schools in the Riverdale/Fieldston section of the Bronx(the others are Horace Mann and Fieldston). Some–not all, but some–of the families who send their kids there have serious money. What’s $100K when you’re pulling down millions a year on Wall Street?</p>
<p>I wonder if it gripes them, or if they’d even know, that when they plump up their kids enough with all that money to get into the chosen school, they may be sitting next to kids who went to iffy publics and spent zero dollars on tutoring. </p>
<p>yeah, it’s their money…shrug. Sure makes me feel like a smart shopper!</p>
<p>This practice of stealth tutoring is unfair and likely at times unethical. In the same way that some college applicants end up having their essays written by paid so-called college counselors, it is likely that some of the work submitted in this school is heavily edited or corrected via “tutoring” so that little of the students’ own work remains. The school should resort to more in-class essay writing and other means to address this inequity. Riverdale says that 20% of its students receive financial aid. I doubt that aid covers tutoring.</p>
<p>I think that is is unethical for teachers (public or private) to charge for tutoring their own students. It is a conflict of interest. As a public school teacher, I have office hours where I am available to work with all of my students, so it is not private tutoring. As a parent, my kids go to private HS where the teachers have extensive office hours to work with all of their students (often individually), but again it is not private tutoring per se.</p>
<p>Yes, I do see this a lot though this case is extreme. Most private schools offer extensive help for those students who seek it. But some parents want to cover all corners, they have the money and they do it. It usually works. Some of these schools have 25-50% of their kids going to highly selective schools. The grading scale is rough a lot of times and it is set up so you have do do your own work as a lot has to be done in class such as that oral exam. </p>
<p>What is impressive to me is the near 100% graduation rate from college these schools sport. When you get through schools like that, college is very easy. </p>
<p>I am looking to get a private tutor for my college bound son for this summer, and will approach some of the teachers at those schools. He is weaker in writing skills than his brothers as he did not go to one of these rigorous schools and getting a grounding in that area is ever so valuable.</p>
<p>“I wonder if it gripes them, or if they’d even know, that when they plump up their kids enough with all that money to get into the chosen school, they may be sitting next to kids who went to iffy publics and spent zero dollars on tutoring.”</p>
<p>I think they know and they don’t care. The hedge fund population we’re talking about didn’t just fall off the turnip truck – they generally went to Ivies themselves. It doesn’t gripe middle-class parents that their kid is in class at Harvard next to someone who got a waiver of the $75 application fee, because $75 is nothing to them. $75 grand is nothing to some families, too.</p>
<p>One of my best friends from college has been making a comfortable living as an Upper East Side tutor for more than ten years. He’s even been flown around the world to accompany a student who needs to keep up during a family vacation. It’s a very nice business.</p>
<p>A little less than $10 per minute…hard to believe that an SAT tutor could be worth that much. I think we’ll be seeing a lot of unemployed lawyers boning up on how to study for the SAT…</p>
<p>Hanna–good points. Actually what I meant by “do they know” is not so much as do they know others spend less, but do they know (care) that others don’t need to spend all that–in other words, maybe their little darlings aren’t the brightest bulbs if it takes that much education-on-steroids to get to the same place.</p>