Meet The Guy Who Makes $1,000 An Hour Tutoring Kids Of Fortune 500 CEOs Over Skype

Parent Cafe
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<p>The testing services like Kaplan do offer private, one-on-one, Skype tutoring services. In fact, in recent years they have been tilting more toward offering on-line services because obviously it is more cost-effective for them. </p>

<p>So yes, they can opt instead to pay much more for some recent college grad with no educational teaching credentials whatsoever (as opposed to, say, a high school math teacher with an M.Ed.) – but it’s not as if they can’t buy the same or better for a whole lot cheaper. </p>

<p>Although I would add, once again, the fee that Mr. Green quotes for his services is not necessarily what he actually gets. He’s still got unfilled slots for the coming semester. </p>

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<p>We have a friend who worked for Princeton Review. He only kept half the money his students paid to PR. After a while (during which PR wasn’t very efficient booking what he needed) he decided to go solo. I am sure it’s the same with the other name brands. And the tutor or class instructor you get is the luck of the draw.</p>

<p>We have another friend whose parents paid big bucks for a small-class Kaplan series to raise her score on the ACT. It turned out that the student knew more than the instructor about the ACT–instructor had to look everything up. So again, an individual tutor, well-recommended, can be a lot better than a name brand.</p>

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<p>The people paying hundreds of dollars an hour for tutoring do not want middle class stuff. They are trying to get away from the middle class. :)</p>

<p>It is not a question whether you can get a great tutor for less. The people paying these costs dont want to pay less. They want to pay a price very few people can pay. They want exclusivity. </p>

<p>If Green dropped his price to $50 an hour, his future customers would come from a different economic class. The upper class would drop him.</p>

<p>I said earlier I know a friend of a friend who is doing this. I have no reason to doubt her story. She is great at what she does and she charges a fortune. She has been friends with my friend for close to 40 years. </p>

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<p>I understand that - I was addressing the issue of whether these tutors are creating an unfair advantage to the children of wealthy parents when it come to test scores. That is, the claim that middle-class Jane can barely score 1800 but wealthy Sue can get a 2300 because daddy paid for Green to tutor her.</p>

<p>And I’m saying that isn’t true.Sue’s rich daddy is paying for the exact same service that Jane’s middle-class parents can buy for her, at least when it comes to preparing for a test designed to be administered en masse to the children of the middle class. My middle class, financial-aid qualifying daughter didn’t do as well as I would have liked on the SAT’s, but it wasn’t because I couldn’t afford a tutor. </p>

<p>The wealthy are paying elite dollars to buy a middle class commodity. They are paying more money to get a more expensive hamburger, but they are still getting hamburger and not caviar.</p>

<p>There is a difference when it comes to the very poor, and all of the other life advantages that wealthy Sue has had since birth are going to give her huge academic advantage every step of the way… but no matter how rich Sue’s parents are and how much they pay, the test subscores still top out at 800, and Sue’s money doesn’t help her at any school that is making an admission decision based on a number.</p>

<p>So my point i that the wealthy Sue’s parents are going to pay whatever they want but they are still buying a commodity that is the same as what middle class parents are able to arrange at a much lower cost. That’s why I gave the analogy of a car. When my daughter was in high school, she wanted to attend a magnet school in a nearby city. She could not get to the school by walking – so if walking was the only option, she would have had to attend the local high school her brother attended (and often walked home from). She could have taken buses to get to school, but she would have had multiple changes and it probably would have taken 2 hours each way - so only very highly motivated kids could do that. Or she could ride in a car (either as a passenger or driving herself). I used to drive her in a beat up old Dodge Neon. When she got her driver’s license, I didn’t think the Neon was safe, so I bought her a used Saturn and she drove that instead. If I had been rich I could have bought her a shiny new Mercedes instead, but it wouldn’t have gotten her to school any faster than the Saturn. The posted speed limit on the highway is the same whether you are driving a Ferrari or a Mini Cooper, and if the car runs, it works. More money could have bought my daughter many other things, including greater comfort, but it couldn’t have improved upon the basic end goal of getting her to school on time. </p>

<p>If I was rich enough to afford $1000/hour tutoring for my kid, and my kid had the creds to get into Harvard, I can think of a better way to guarantee a spot at Harvard. Plus, my better way would have the added perk that future Harvard students would always be able to see a plaque on a building with my name on it.</p>

<p>And I’d add to @sally305’s post above, re the scheduling: if you want to do tutoring “in style” - your kid doesn’t go to a class across town or visit a tutor across town, and your kid doesn’t get tutoring with Skype. You hire a tutor to come to your house.</p>

<p>That’s how my son got a Bar Mitzvah. I couldn’t deal with the time and travel involved to have DS take Hebrew lessons at the nearest synagogue, so I hired a rabbinical student to come to our house and teach my son Hebrew. He came once a week, it cost $45 per session, plus the guy was a good mentor and role model to my son. </p>

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<p>Actually teaching content (as opposed to strategy), could be counter-productive in terms of test scores. It’s easy for a smart kid, but poor test-taker, to get a little bit too immersed in the handful of very difficult problems on the test, and then run out of time to handle the easier stuff. Computerized testing might be a boost for those types of students, as the computers are set up to stop feeding them the easier questions – but in a paper-and-pencil format, there’s a penalty for spending too much time on getting things right. <<<</p>

<p>You CANNOT draw such conclusions! The prep industry is not the sole domain of the ineffective PR and Kaplan who relies of hordes of young people who happened to score well enough to be group leaders and masquerade as REAL tutors. It is a low cost and low quality proposal. However, there are TRUE professionals who not only understand the test but the REAL math behind the questions. </p>

<p>The REAL pros can teach the correct strategies AND the math! If you look for easy to spot references, take a look at the posts of Pckeller, Dr Steve, and a few others right here on the SAT forum! Some people who used to offer advice here were employed by Princeton Review but not part of the kiddie-teach-kiddies group programs. Read the posts of gcf101 and you might see what he knew about how to solve problems without tricks! Check the videos of SATQuantum, and let me know if he does not teach the math! </p>

<p>Solid techniques and reasoning complement good math knowledge. They do not replace it. Fwiw, a STRONG math or SMART student should not get stuck in a SAT math problem. A poorly prepared one might. And one that is stuck at the basic PR plugging or guessing techniques might! </p>

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<p>Calmom, I grew up lower middle class.</p>

<p>I ended up in Tiburon…in the flats. :slight_smile: I never fit in Tiburon. :)</p>

<p>I dont think the middle class has an equal chance. Not close either. </p>

<p>People think differently in Tiburon or Mill Valley or Belvedere, etc. compared to people in middle class areas.</p>

<p>I had a friend that grew up upper class in Newport Beach. Whenever there was an issue with his kids , that guy was in the face of whoever he thought could help his kids until he got the result he wanted. In the face… </p>

<p>There is an attitude difference. </p>

<p>I took a class at Sonoma State. The class was about social class in education. Blew my mind. </p>

<p>One anecdote…
The professor who came from a poor background but was now super wealthy told the class that more than half the kids in Tiburon went to private schools.</p>

<p>Living in Tiburon at the time, I said to the professor in front of the whole class, “You are crazy! I live in Tiburon. The public schools are awesome. You are wrong”.</p>

<p>The professor said, no. The public schools arent good enough. School systems are set up to keep the status quo. </p>

<p>I coached so many kids over the years. I was sure I was correct. I went home and grabbed the school directories that have lists of all the students at public schools in Tiburon. I go through the lists. “Where is everybody?”</p>

<p>Most of the kids were at private schools. Even in Tiburon… We had separation of the classes. The wealthy and the upper upper middle class… Were separated. Lol!</p>

<p>Good thing my son was an unbelievable soccer player… Otherwise he wouldn’t have made the team. :slight_smile: I am not kidding. </p>

<p>I told the professor the next day, “You were right”. But not in front of the whole class. In her office. :)</p>

<p>The Outliers by Gladwell deals with education in his book. Hard to finish his books, but he said what I saw and studied about social class and education.</p>

<p>The middle class doesnt know what is out there.</p>

<p>Some middle class people will figure a few things out, but they are outliers.</p>

<p>If my wife did not marry down, I wouldn’t know either. :)</p>

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<p>“Solid techniques and reasoning complement good math knowledge. They do not replace it.”</p>

<p>Agreed. Many of my students have never encountered “i” before they see it on the ACT. We have a lot of fun learning imaginary numbers from the beginning. This is far more interesting than refreshing SOH CAH TOA, etc.</p>

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<p>I’m not saying that the rich don’t have advantages over the middle class.</p>

<p>I am saying that SAT tutoring is not one of those advantages. Over the poor yes. </p>

<p>But the SAT is a middle class sorting hat. It’'s designed to decide which kids get to go to the public university. It’s works pretty well for the middle-range scorers, for which it is designed. No standardized tests work particularly well at the margins – once kids are scoring above 700 on a subtest, there is no meaningful distinction between scores and no way to discern the brilliant from the very bright. The kids who are pretty smart are able to hit that level either innately or because they could benefit from tutoring, and the kids who are brilliant and also good test takers have topped out. Maybe if there was a better test for them they would score 1000 points but the score range only goes up to 800. Because of the margin of error that means that a score of 760 or above is potentially topping out of the test (based on my memory of a 40-point margin – I could be mistaken about that, but the point is the same). </p>

<p>If Harvard really wanted to have an academically elite student body, they would have their own, harder, test. Or maybe one that included tests of a lot of subjects that aren’t even taught at most public schools.</p>

<p>But that’s not why they use the test. The test benefits them in other ways, but it isn’t going to make much of a different in terms of the academic caliber of their class.</p>

<p>When a rich person buys SAT tutoring, they are buying into the middle-class sorting hat game. They are paying big bucks so that when their wealthy kids goes to a room filled with the children of the middle class and sits for 3 hours using a pencil to fill out bubbles on scantron, their kid will have a competitive edge at the middle class game. But it’s still a middle class game. And what it says, ultimately, is that the parent isn’t confident that the kid who they have sent to the very best, most elite, private school for 11 years can do better than a middle-class kid on a test designed to measure middle class kids from public high school, unless their very rich and privileged kid gets specialized and very pricey tutoring.</p>

<p>What does that say about all the other benefits of being rich?</p>

<p>It says that there are some things that money can’t and won’t buy. </p>

<p>A little bit of money is a huge help when it comes to test prep – and enough money to send the kids to private school from K-12 may help, depending on the quality of the local public system – (in many areas the public schools really are better, even though wealthy parents may perceive it differently) - but there’s only so far you can go with test prep for the SAT. </p>

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<p>The SAT is more than a midfle class sorting act. It is an upper class and upper middle class sorting act too. And when an upper middle class kid takes a practice test and scores 2000, a tutor is called.</p>

<p>I disgree that the SAT is solely a middle class game. Yet… I agree with this except for the middle class game. So I am going to edit that out.</p>

<p>" They are paying big bucks so that when their wealthy kids goes to a room filled with the children of the middle class and sits for 3 hours using a pencil to fill out bubbles on scantron, their kid will have a competitive edge. And what it says, ultimately, is that the parent isn’t confident that the kid who they have sent to the very best, most elite, private school for 11 years can do better than a middle-class kid on a test unless their very rich and privileged kid gets specialized and very pricey tutoring."</p>

<p>Yes!</p>

<p>Edit… I had to delete a paragraph I wrote.</p>

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<p>SAT is just a proof of basic academic competency. Chance that there is some math genius that was not discovered by his parents or HS teachers and need to rely on SAT for this purpose is quite low.</p>

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I know you often post this as a gospel. This isn’t true in most cases. My kid spent hours practice the SAT tests and did score several times with scores 2000+. No tutor was called.
I have to say repeat again and again here, I spent less than $100 for the first kid and reused the same books for the second kid.</p>

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<p>So very true. The private tutoring is like extra insurance on top of all the other advantages the wealthy can confer to their kids. It would not be acceptable to these people to have their kid upstaged on the SAT by some classmate from a lesser neighborhood or worse school. They are really just looking for guaranteed ROI on the lifelong investments they have made in their kids.</p>

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<p>DrGoogle, It was poetic license. You see the Groucho picture? I exaggerated. ;). Every upper middle class kid who scores 2,000 or less does not get a tutor. Majority dont get a tutor? Not what what I saw. Did I say every upper middle class kid got or gets a tutor? My son did not get a tutor. He barely practiced for the SAT. He barely studied in class too. One day in May, when my kid was in high school, I opened up the trunk of my car and saw one of his textbooks. There was still that cellophane wrapping around the textbook. He never opened the book. I saw plenty of textbooks over the years that looked unused. ;)</p>

<p>When my kid was 2 or 3…I dont want to exaggerate here…he saw this sign but he couldnt read it. He asked my wife what the sign said? </p>

<p>It said 3 lbs of oranges for .99. He asked my wife, "That means it is 1 lb for .33, right?</p>

<p>Nobody ever talked to my kid about that stuff. I have no idea how he knew. </p>

<p>I have a lot more but…my son doesn’t like it when I mention him. He is brilliant, and…I will just say, he did not have a tutor. ;)</p>

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<p>My kids never had a tutor, even refused(yes you’ve heard it right) to get help from the parents on subject we know very well. I know a lot of people have to have tutoring this and that but some families don’t care.
What I saw the upper middle class kids in Newport Beach sometimes have trouble with drugs, forget about getting a leg up on SAT.</p>

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<p>Does that mean every kid in Newport Beach sometimes has trouble with drugs?</p>

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<p>No, but your post made it sound like the rich upper middle class have the upper hand on everything. They have trouble with what money brings.</p>

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<p>Upper hand in everything? I never said that. You read that. </p>

<p>I worked with people who were trust fund babies and a couple had a very hard time. I dont know what happened to them.</p>

<p>Speaking for myself, I have been lower middle class and upper middle class and upper middle class is better. </p>

<p>Also, we have always had class warfare in this country and we have class warfare now. </p>

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Honestly, maybe you were just having fun. But reading your post gives me high blood pressure, I didn’t have before reading it. I don’t know if any students or parents from middle class wouldn’t take that the wrong way. Injustice, oh yeah!</p>

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<p>I am sorry but that is true.</p>

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<p>True to what? How do you explain the welfare to billionaire story like WhatsApp?</p>