<p>I am a Sophomore majoring in a Liberal Arts major, and I was thinking of dropping out and doing this:</p>
<p>Since math tutors are in demand since math is a demanding subject, i thought maybe i could teach myself Calculus get a 5 on AP calculus to prove myself to be competent, and then market myself for math tutoring. Since tutoring is at least $20 per hour it pays much better than minimum wage jobs. Or I could get a high score on SAT and then tutor people for techniques on taking the SAT test. </p>
<p>Since I am only a Liberal Arts degree major, I wouldn't be able to earn much money anyway even if I graduated, maybe 30k-40k, possibly even lower.</p>
<p>You should just get your degree anyways in case you need a fallback. </p>
<p>You don’t know for certain you’ll be a successful tutor. I certainly wouldn’t go to a person that is attempting to teach AP course material, college level stuff, while not even having college degree.</p>
<p>If you teach yourself calculus and get a 5 on the AP test you would probably be limited to only teaching rich high school kids since AP Calculus is only a foundation for college math courses. </p>
<p>As for the SAT route, you can’t really study for that test and get the score SAT tutors can get. People who go crazy studying for the SAT can’t really break 2250, pretty much only those that are born with a certain type of mind can get well above 2300 and even hit 2400, which is what competent and in-demand SAT tutors consistently get. If youre tutoring someone and miss a single question youre services are automatically rendered useless because every point matters to these kids that are trying to get the highest score possible. </p>
<p>Do what other Liberal Arts majors do and wait until theyre graduate students to write a book or something. Or make a blog on the side. Be an entrepreneur! Use that creative mind of yours.</p>
Coming from a highly competitive Asian dominated high school with numerous students who have enrolled in SAT courses for 2 to 4+ years of their lives (and an area with many similar surrounding high schools), I can tell you this is untrue. Anyone can get 2400 with enough time investment. </p>
<p>It’s just a lot of kids from less well off neighborhoods do not realize how crazy some rich kids can get and think their 2 month rigorous study will be sufficient.</p>
<p>Actually the rich families can get people with real credentials. I did a little bit of tutoring and if you’re only advertising based on test scores you can only get people that are looking for low cost tutors. If you look on craigslist, there are people that are charging $80+ per hour.</p>
<p>Almost every SAT school I went to had instructors with phDs from at least UCLA. Granted they were mostly phDs in the humanities but they’re still phDs nonetheless. For their full time jobs, my SAT instructors taught mostly at prep schools.</p>
<p>Well the OP doesn’t have 2-4+ years and a pile of money to get crazy good on the SAT. That 2 month period is pretty much the time span he/she has if they want to generate a stable income as soon as possible, which goes back to my point that not just anyone can be an SAT tutor.</p>
<p>Also, getting a high score on the SAT doesn’t necessarily mean you’re fit to be a good tutor. Even if you remember the concepts, you need to be able to explain how to think about them. It’s also important that you teach them to think about the concepts properly. For example, it’s easy with something like algebra to develop short hand ways of thinking that would confuse a first time learner. You may also find that there are problem solving strategies you take for granted (and have trouble explaining) that the student is unfamiliar with.</p>
<p>Well his username is “gravesituation”. Maybe there are embarrassing details he isn’t telling us like he is about to be subject to dismissal for his Asian Studies major. It doesn’t happen often but it does happen. (After all, who would want to go for those liberal art majors?)</p>
<p>I’m in a sort of a “gravesituation” myself, though not nearly as grave as my hypothetical example…</p>
<p>@gravesituation
If for some reason you are in a major you dislike for reasons beyond your control or are struggling academically, feel free to reach out for help online. None of us know you on a personal level. You are completely anonymous.</p>
<p>I took SAT classes and the people that taught me were grad students from a nearby university (a UC). People look at what’s on paper first, not how “competent” you really are. Fives on the AP calculus test aren’t very difficult to get honestly, as many people have gotten them.</p>
<p>In addition, UCLA math grad students get paid 45-100$ an hour for tutoring (some include even the time for transportation), especially since the surrounding area is wealthy. And, some are teaching like… elementary, junior high, or high school students - math that basically any competent south campus major can teach. But, these parents of these kids aren’t going to hire south campus peoples because there are more “qualified” people (UCLA math grads) able to hire, even though they might not be the best teachers or remember the more basic math things very well.</p>
<p>It’ll be really hard to market yourself out to people if you just say that you got a 5 on an AP exam (which many other people received; and AP Calc BC is heavily curved so getting a 5 on it doesn’t necessarily indicate that you have completely mastered the material) and have only a high school degree.</p>
<p>If you’re so into this SAT thing, I would do the following: get your degree and teach reading comp or writing for the SAT, and you can pair up with a south campus-like person w/ a degree who can teach the other part of the SAT. And then you can make lots of bank if you market yourself and teach people well. (I know someone that has done this and he is pretty successful.)</p>