What’s The Right Price For Tutoring?

10 Apr

Posted by: Brian Armstrong in: Tutoring, Updates

Here is an email we got from a tutor the other day. I thought it was worth re-printing in case others have a similar question:

I am a tutor at universitytutor.com. I really love your website and the recent innovations you have made including client rating and profile updates.

I just saw an email in regards to you setting up a new system with clients paying a markup on tutoring. I don’t know how efficiently this will work.

I work as a tutor and I am also currently going to school. It seems like a lot of money to pay by students just for getting tutored, they might also go to other websites or go to school learning centers to get the necessary aid.

Does this sound logical? I am just sending my thoughts and concerns because I really love your website.

Sincerely,
[name removed]

Hi [name removed],

Thanks for the email, I really appreciate your feedback! I think you’re right that the markup could cause a problem for some students. You may want to keep any existing clients you already have at your old rate so they don’t get an unexpected price bump. This tends to upset people more in my experience – unexpected changes – whereas if if a student knows the price up front then its unlikely to be an issue.

As for future clients, I don’t think it will be as a big of an issue as you might think. I know that when I first started tutoring, I “went out on a limb” and decided to charge $35 per hour which sounded like a lot to me. People paid and things went fine. I started meeting other tutors who claimed to be charging as much as $60 or $80 per hour, and I didn’t really believe it, but as I got busier I decided to raise my prices from $35 to $45. I figured I’d lose a good chunk of people but it was ok because I was getting busy. Remarkably, of the 30 or so clients I had setup with a bunch of tutors (it wasn’t just me at this point) I think only one expressed concern and decided to stop. There was zero drop in new business.

A few years later I had a “real job” and decided I wouldn’t have time for tutoring, but just as an experiment I’d put my rate at $65/hr just in case someone was really desperate. Incredibly, I saw no drop in business and new clients kept coming in at this rate. By the way, my “real job” was paying $25/hr so that tells you something.

Of course, by this time I had quite a lot of experience tutoring, but part of it was just that I didn’t realize how valuable it was to some people. In some professions (accounting, medicine, etc) it’s not uncommon to charge $500 per hour and up. Is it worth it? Well, if you REALLY need the IRS to get off your back or REALLY need your new kidney to work correctly, then yes it might be worth it. Similarly, if you REALLY need to pass biology this year, it might be worth it if you are the best biology tutor in town.

While there is occasionally free tutoring to be found (of dubious quality), keep in mind that your main competition comes from big tutoring companies like Kaplan and Silvan who have million dollar marketing budgets. These companies often sell their tutoring in “blocks” or “classes” which hide the true dollar per hour figures, but if you price it out it’s not uncommon for these classes to cost upwards of $85 per hour (and the markup on that is about 50% so the tutor is getting half). By these standards, the tutors on UniversityTutor.com are a steal.

I’ve actually been surprised by the prices that most tutors are putting on the website around $20 or $30 per hour. Every market is different, but in general I think most of the tutors on the site are pricing themselves too low. I don’t blame them because when I was a college student and the best jobs on campus paid $10 per hour, I didn’t believe it was possible either. But tutoring is not a commodity like a gallon of gasoline where the only way to compete is on price. Some tutors are much better than others and can command a much higher price. For better or worse, price is often used as an indicator of quality when people shop so it’s even possible that putting a higher price could actually result in MORE inquires from students who are looking to hire the best.

Anyway, I hope this helps and thanks for the feedback! We always like to hear from our users.

Thank you,
Brian Armstrong
www.UniversityTutor.com

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16 Responses

Kay Bird
15|Apr|2009 1

I just read some of the emails about the prices charged for tutoring and it made me cross. As the person said he thought charging $35 was a reasonable price, which I quite agree. But as he heard of others charging more he thought he would do the same. Gradually increasing his price to $60. Can I just say we are at the mercy of ‘you’ tutors, we are desperate to help our children and will put our selves in financial difficulties to do so. When we see these prices it is frightening but what can we do when held to emotional ransom.
Perhaps these tutors you mock for charging $20-$30 have some conscience or (as I have done) actually want to do something helpful, by helping the kids who are the future.

[Reply]
toto Reply:
March 2nd, 2011 at 5:28 am
You are not at the mercy of anybody. You have no entitlement to have a tutor for your child. No tutor is obligated to help your child for free or for some fee that is below what they wish to charge.

If you wanted your child to have this service then you should educate yourself so that you can provide the service to your child. Oh, you can’t do that because it will take time and money? Well, guess what? It took time and money for the tutor to gain these skills also. So if you aren’t willing to put in the time and money to help your child, then why should a tutor feel obliged to do for your child for a pittance what you are not willing to do?

[Reply]
Harold Reply:
July 27th, 2011 at 5:49 am
As a graduate student and a tutor with many years experience I find that in this industry, like most, you get what you pay for.

The idea that tutors are holding parents to emotional random is a silly and juvenile one.

If we follow the same thought process we can legitimately ask the question; do you believe that Ferrari is holding you to random by charging in the hundreds of thousands for their vehicles? If you are not willing to pay for a Ferrari, how can you expect to receive Ferrari quality?

In my experience, when getting out of school tuition, the quality of the tutor will directly effect your child ability to engage in the sessions and as a result, meet the educational expectations they have of themselves.

I have to admit, I scored exceptionally well in highschool but that did not prepare me in the slightest for communicating that knowledge to others. This took years and many self funded courses to develop.

I tutor about 8 children at the moment and they are not restricted to a single subject as I have learnt the material for all but the language subjects in the curriculum. Now this means the student can get my help with all their subjects, and means they don’t need multiple tutors. I also give out my phone number and email to my students so if they run into serious trouble between sessions they can call/email me free of charge and I will talk them through their issues.

Now to get to this level of tuition requires years of training and development as well as a genuine passion for teaching. To say that I must charge my students the same as a 17 year old high school graduate is ridiculous.

I charge on the upper range of what Brian was quoting however, parents happily accept that by paying this extra amount they are insuring their kids get a quality session that they will look forward to.

If you want to check out my webpage it’s URL is: http://www.haroldwalden.com.au this has links to my tuition facebook page so you can see what my take is on after school tuition.

Thanks

Harold

[Reply]
Carol Reply:
May 2nd, 2012 at 5:16 pm
I care about my child education, and I rather tutor my child myself for those prices. I understand that “tutors” are helping my child, but there is no way I am paying those prices. I have a choice to help my children and not pay anyone else to do so. I am not that “desperate” to get help for my child.

[Reply]
Becky Reply:
May 2nd, 2012 at 7:03 pm
You’re certainly correct. You always have the choice to do it yourself to save the money (just as everyone always has the option to eat a steak dinner prepared by someone else or eat at home.) When you eat out, you are not only paying for the meal itself. You are also paying for the service – someone to wait on you and someone to prepare your meal the way you want. You would obviously expect to pay more for the same steak at a 5 star restaurant than you would at Applebee’s. Same goes for tutoring. You can do it yourself completely. If you have the knowledge, that’s great! You’re just out the extra time. Or you can pay extra to have someone else do it. The more expertise this person has and the more they bring to the table, the more you should expect to pay. Nobody is forcing anyone to get a tutor. As Harold and Toto both said, it’s not an entitlement.
Dorothy
15|Apr|2009 2

Please keep in mind that many of the students/parents seeking tutoring services are from single parent homes—-one income. Yes, as parents we want the best for our children, so we seek the help of outside tutors, however, that $20.00 may be the only money we can squeeze out of our budget, and it could be sniping part of the light bill to do that.

Yes, tutors are in it to make money and they may really need it, but they should also be in the tutoring business to help someone who desperately needs the help and because they enjoy helping others. If I knew the subject material, knew it well, and could impart it to others so that they would be successful, I would offer my service as a tutor and not charge one penny. It would be payment enough for me just to know that I had helped someone to succeed in their educational endeavors.

Thank you.

[Reply]
toto Reply:
March 2nd, 2011 at 5:30 am
Nobody is obligated to bear the responsibility for your own decisions in life. You chose to be in a situation wherein you had a child that you cannot tutor by yourself because you lack the educational skills or for whom you cannot afford tutoring that isn’t dirt cheap.

The sense of entitlement some people have is truly incredible.

[Reply]
H Reply:
January 4th, 2012 at 10:41 am
I 100% agree you sound like a bunch of whingers and as if you would do it for free you spastic seriously are you that stupid you think people will buy this shit?

[Reply]
Becky Reply:
May 2nd, 2012 at 7:16 pm
Actually, we don’t have to keep in mind that you have one income. I have one income, TUTORING. I will truly tutor your child for free IF you pay my house payments, pay for my utilities, buy food for my family, pay for my daughter’s college tuition and books, pay for my family’s health insurance, pay for the rest of my famiy’s medical bills, and all other monthly expenses. I have gone many a months not having enough income to cover expenses and dipping into my savings. My main goal as a tutor is to help all my students succeed (and they do.) But just like any other job, it involves payment. In this case, you are the one paying.

[Reply]
DANIELLE ESTES
17|Apr|2009 3

Hi,
Just a thougt on tutor increases. I recently hired a tutor for my daughter. I am by no means “low income” or a single parent and I still did have to consider the cost. The cost was a large factor in how many days and where we went for tutoring, I researched and found the collage tutoring fair in price. I also considered using a high school friend for a lesser price. As a student I am sure the tutors understand 1 hr of tutoring is not much so if more hours are needed and the cost is too much most people will go without the tutoring, which then in turn helps no one.
Understanding an increase may be needed from time to time I just think people should make it reasonable.
Just a thought from somone on the other side.

[Reply]
Brian Armstrong
19|Apr|2009 4

Thank you for the feedback everyone! Luckily, I think the majority of tutors will still be listing their tutoring for less than $30 per hour (many around $23) so this hopefully won’t be too big of an issue. But eventually we’ll get tutors across the entire spectrum. Glad to see the participation.

[Reply]
Craig
08|Jul|2009 5

Well i guess my Spanish classes at $9.99hr are pocket change compared to others.
For a 1 on 1 class with a certified teacher of Spanish.

[Reply]
Lori
30|Jun|2010 6

In my experience, I’ve seen that the going rate for hiring a certified teacher (i.e. a teacher with good credentials and actual experience) varies widely. The variation is much more dramatic than what you might think. What passes for market rate in a rural suburb of Chicago isn’t even close to being market rate in Manhattan or Long Island, NY.

[Reply]
Brian Armstrong Reply:
June 30th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
Agreed.

[Reply]
Ken
13|Aug|2011 7

I would like to thank you for this post. In the research I’ve done it seems that tutoring companies do not want to list the prices they charge but try to lead you into calling them instead. I may have the opportunity to private tutor soon and I really needed to get some insight into what is being charged. Thanks.

[Reply]
Becky
11|Nov|2011 8

I have twenty-five years of experience in tutoring and twenty years experince teaching in the classroom. Everytime I tutor a student, I call upon this experience. I have twelve years of college education including two degrees in education (one is a Master’s). I drive to a student’s home or meet them somewhere of their choosing. I stay in contact with a student’s teachers if desired. I prepare lesson plans for every tutoring session. I give verbal/written feedback on every lesson to the parent afterwards.

I do not charge extra for any of the above-listed items. I spent between 7 and 10 thousand dollars every year for my education. I drive as far as 40 miles round trip for a lesson. That could cost as much as $6 per lesson. I can spend as much as 10 to 15 minutes at a time talking to teachers. Anther 10-15 minutes for every lesson prepaing feedback. Often 30 minutes per lesson preparing lesson plans. That is up to one hour of outside time for every hour of tutoring.

If you want someone of quality who is truly concerned about the success of your child, you must be willing to pay for it. We have and still are!

[Reply]