How to Become a Tutor

By Danielle Wirsansky on September 17, 2017

Many college students are a little bit cash-strapped but have a hard time finding a job that fits their schedule and their experience levels.

However, tutoring is an ideal job for college students. Any class you have taken at school and gotten a good grade in, you can help tutor. Subjects that are a part of your major are things that you can tutor in. Topics you have a lot of experience in like algebra or world history, either from work, job, or other firsthand experience, you can tutor.

You can generally make your own schedule, and you get paid much more per hour than you do at a regular, entry-level position that most college students are qualified for. And when you are paid so much per hour, you do not have to work as many hours which helps balance itself out for a college student who cannot devote that much time to working while also taking classes.

So tutoring sounds like it could be a pretty decent side gig, right? So how do you become a tutor? Where can you tutor? There are a lot of questions to answer. But there are three main ways you can become a tutor, so read on to learn about them!

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Tutor at school

Most universities offer free tutoring services for their students. It is a great service to offer to students and can be a great resource. But in order to offer tutoring to their students, they have to employ tutors. This means that they could employ you.  It’s worth a shot, right? It’s a great opportunity to tutor.

You might not be offered as high a wage as you might with an independent tutoring company, but it will definitely be above minimum wage which is a plus for a college student. You will work on campus which makes it incredibly convenient. You do not have to commute or find other parking because you will already be on campus for your own classes. And the university will definitely work with your schedule because who understands more what it is like to be a student than the university itself? All universities want their students to succeed first and foremost, so they are not going to set you up for failure.

The university also has an endless supply of customers: students who need to be tutored. Students’ first choice for tutoring will be what the campus offers because it is on campus and they do not need to pay for it. Students always need help so you will have plenty of students to work with and plenty of hours to work.

Tutor online

Another great option to find a tutoring gig is to tutor on an online platform. The reason that this option can work really well for college students is the flexibility it offers you. You can set up your hours for when you are available and only take student clients when you have the time to tutor. You do not have to spend your own time searching for students — the company matches you up with students that fit your schedule and the topics they want to be tutored in. You choose the time from the list of their availability that you are interested in. Instead of doing the legwork yourself, the company will provide you with a detailed summary of what the student is looking for in the sessions and even how many sessions they want to tutor for.

Other perks include working from home or wherever is convenient, quiet, and has Wi-Fi. Many companies will even provide a platform for you to tutor on so that you know your hours are being accurately recorded and that a student cannot behave improperly or accuse you of behaving improperly. You are often paid more than minimum wage as well!

Varsity Tutors is a great option for this. The company describes themselves as such:

“Varsity Tutors is a live learning platform that connects students with personalized instruction to accelerate academic achievement. To date, students have accessed more than 2 million hours of live instruction.”

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Tutor independently

Another option to pursue is tutoring independently of any company and starting off on your own. Tutoring on your own is the same as running your own business, and that makes you your own boss. It is a lot of work because you have to find your own clients, find your own spaces to tutor in and make sure your hours are flexible enough to accommodate the students you are able to find and still allow you to make the money that you need to.

You have to deal with parents and unruly students and you have no middleman to watch over you. But you choose your hours, your prices, your materials, and get to have your own freedom.

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