My son has quit his minimum-wage job because he has a pretty tough academic schedule this year, and he asked me if I thought he could make money math tutoring a few hours a week. He is reasonably good at math, but is only enrolled in BC Calc and Stats this year. So he has the knowledge to teach basic algebra and geometry/trig, but not advanced calculus.
He does have some concerns about trying to offer tutoring to his classmates. I’ve suggested that he might try to tutor freshmen at the local university, either individually or maybe by getting paid by a couple of fraternities to attend their pledge study halls, working with small groups of kids having trouble with algebra. I don’t know whether tutoring a bunch of pledges would help or hurt when going through rush in a couple of years, but my son says he probably won’t attend our local university because he doesn’t want to feel like he is in 13th grade (over half his class will attend locally), so hopefully it won’t matter.
Does anyone have any thoughts or experience in this area? Any of you know high school kids who have made money tutoring fellow students? Would a college freshman be willing to take instruction from a high-schooler? Any idea of how much he might charge? Thanks!
I am a rising college freshman and I tutored students during my junior and senior years. I was enrolled in Calculus AB as a senior. I didn’t tutor other high school students, partly because that market was covered by teachers and professionals in the area. Instead, I tutored elementary and middle school kids. I charged $20/hour, which is good money even if you don’t tutor too often, especially since it is tax-free… I personally don’t think a high schooler should be charging more than $30/hour and never knew other high schoolers who charged that much, whereas teachers would charge at least $60/hour. Getting tutored by a high school student is a good option for some families because there is generally more flexibility, lower cost, and a bit more connection since it’s student-to-student.
Finding students to tutor was the hardest part. I relied on the online forum for my community and found a few students a year that way, but other ideas would be advertising in a library or at school.
I also tutored Math and Science during my junior and senior years. I was in AP Calculus BC as a senior and AP Physics. I mostly tutored 8th and 9th grade math students. My high school guidance dept. would recommend me (and other students) as a tutor. I also made $20 per hour. The only thing is that it is not steady work but more connected with major exam times throughout the school year. That was fine with me since I had a heavy school work load and many after school activities.
@engine9 My son is under the impression that his school would frown on his advertising his services on campus, so I doubt they would refer people to him. He thinks they would expect him to tutor for free, although he might be wrong.
My guess is that he would be happy to earn $20 an hour. He’s been making $7.25 an hour at a sandwich shop, although he wasn’t entirely happy about the wage.
I agree that it isn’t steady work- students come and go. At one point I was tutoring two elementary-age brothers. They were a real handful, but also $40 a week to teach fractions and multiplication tables is a pretty good gig. I know at my old school, there was a particular math teacher who everyone absolutely loved and a ton of students wanted him as a tutor. He charged $70/hour and was always busy, so he would recommend some of his best previous students who would tutor for a lower rate. If your son had connections like this, that would make things easier.
Keep in mind that the job requires a lot of patience. The younger kids that I would tutor could be difficult sometimes, and with the middle-school-age kids I would tutor, a good 75% had a learning disability or other special circumstance (like anxiety). Some of them, especially girls, had the math skills but weren’t confident on tests. It’s not just teaching math, it’s customizing your approach for each pupil. I’m not normally patient, but I found it in myself for the job haha. Also, it doesn’t have the structure of a ‘real’ job, which is great but also it makes it kind of hard to plan things in your personal life at times.
Good luck to your son!
My S tutored math (he was ahead of the typical accelerated sequence by a year) and Spanish in HS. In his case, it was an outgrowth of volunteer tutoring through National Honor Society. A few classmates whom he tutored while volunteering asked him if he would provide additional tutoring for a fee. I think he also charged $20 an hour.
He liked tutoring classmates. He was familiar with the texts, and often, the teachers. Mainly, it was kids just struggling with a few concepts - not serious learning disabilities.
If you made over $400 in a tax year, it was only tax free because you ignored IRS regulations. You would at least have probably owed self-employment tax.
Peer tutoring in high school can be fraught with pitfalls. I would suggest working with younger students at a different school, middle or elementary, rather than high school.
Unless money is desperately needed, he might consider volunteering instead, as that will give him someone else to use as a reference. Schools will have volunteer coordinators, but they won’t be involved with managing students charging money to tutor other students.