I am currently a gap year student and I have about 6 months to go before I head out to to college. I have cycled through work in food service and retail for some time to help save for college and I have now been considering tutoring as freelance work. I was wondering how people were able to get their kids to tutor in high school and college? How were they able to advertise and get their name out? I plan to continue this in college while I study engineering but I was wondering how to get started around the Denver area here. If I were to tutor, it would most likely be math related work because it’s my strongest area. I have knowledge up to Calc III/DFQ so I have a huge breath of math skills to help people. I would just like to know how to market myself out there in these last few months and while in college. Thanks!!!
My D has been tutoring since junior year at high school. It is mostly by word of mouth. She is now a sophomore in engineering and she keeps 1-2 high students during the semesters but she has 4 to 5 students over the summer. Unless the student has specific needs (or weakness), most of them want helps on multiple subjects (like sciences and maths) and some want help in test prep too. It would be harder if you are going to start in a new location as you may not have the connections. Also, you may not know the curriculum of that school district that much. You may try to post your advertisement in grocery stores (try Asian stores) and high school bulletin boards.
My D as well tutored since junior year of HS. She is home from Penn right now on medical leave (IBS) and tutoring. Mostly social media and referrals. Use your parents contact too!
Maybe try contacting the Disabilities office of local community colleges or smaller colleges. I think they might be able to help get your name out. I would love if D’s college did this–we’ve been very unsuccessful in finding someone to tutor humanities, and I’m sure people are searching even more for tutors in the science and math areas.
Try talking to your old math and science teachers. They may be willing and able to refer students to you if they think you will do a good job. And the students need more help and attention than the teachers can offer. You can also try working at a SAT prep course for the math portion if there’s one in your area.
Agree you can also offer yourself at community colleges, tho they may already have work study tutors.
Your own neighborhood may have plenty of potential clients.Try putting up notices in churches and Starbucks - pretty much any place with a bulletin board. You can also ask the Guidance Counseling office at your old high school if they keep a list. If so, put your name on it.
My son made a webpage with contact information and links to resources for homework and practice. He tutored in math, chemistry, and physics. I would say that ⅔ of his students wanted SAT or ACT math test prep rather than school subject tutoring, which is easier to tutor because you don’t have to try to figure out how the teacher at school is presenting the subject. He got many students word of mouth, and a few independent college advisors had his name. Good luck!
One thing that my daughter did was to send her resume to the private schools in the area – mainly because she was a a classics scholar and they were the schools that offered Latin. She ended up with a number of Latin & SAT tutoring gigs, as well as offers to substitute teach. Her situation (Ivy grad taking year before grad school) was different from your, but the same approach (e.g., writing the head of the math department at selected schools) might yield something.
