How much to charge for tutoring?

meowmix

Hall of Fame
A few people have asked me to tutor them in various subjects, including analysis, physics, and the SAT's (for money). I tutored my first person today on the math portion of the SAT's. I charged him 15 bucks (1 hour). Do you think this is too much?
 

YULitle

Hall of Fame
Nope, not too much. I used to charge $25 an hour for math tutoring. I knew someone who charged $40/hour with a two-hour minimum. You have to charge to where it's worth your time.
 

tenn23

Rookie
Just wondering, to tutor for SAT, did you have to get a license or are you just doing it part time? If so, are you a college student right now? What was your SAT score? I'm asking all this to see if I can do something similar too. I think 15 is actually a bargain for the tutee, but price really depends on quality.
 

Steady Eddy

Legend
That's too cheap. Suppose you are going to tutor three people consecutively. It's not very likely you'll see one at 1, another at 2, and the third at 3. Instead, you'll have gaps, and you might have to drive around. You're not really making $15 an hour like you would if this was a normal job. Ask more, people are willing to pay it.
 

william7gr

Professional
I hope your not certified because if you are you could charge a lot more. If not you could probably get away with a little more.
 

Bottle Rocket

Hall of Fame
Nope, not too much. I used to charge $25 an hour for math tutoring. I knew someone who charged $40/hour with a two-hour minimum. You have to charge to where it's worth your time.

Damn.

Time to make a career change.

I used to tutor someone in basic high school Algebra and what I got paid worked out to about $10 an hour... :(

Little did I know, I could have been making 80,000 a year as a math tutor.
 

YULitle

Hall of Fame
Damn.

Time to make a career change.

I used to tutor someone in basic high school Algebra and what I got paid worked out to about $10 an hour... :(

Little did I know, I could have been making 80,000 a year as a math tutor.

If you could find that many people to tutor, possibly. You have to stop considering it a full-time job and start thinking about the fact that you might be tutoring for only one hour and that it will be away from where you are.
 

dave333

Hall of Fame
lol damn, I've been teaching kids violin, calculus, and physics for a measly 12-15 bucks an hour.

I've been getting ripped off :/
 

Steady Eddy

Legend
If you could find that many people to tutor, possibly. You have to stop considering it a full-time job and start thinking about the fact that you might be tutoring for only one hour and that it will be away from where you are.
Exactly. Most people came to me for tutoring. I didn't go to them. I would tell them that I require $40 an hour. The honest truth is that for less, I'm just not interested. Some college students, who were working their way through college and couldn't afford much, I would see them if they could meet me somewhere convenient to where I was going. I wouldn't charge them, I was glad to help. But I don't care to spend 20 minutes driving to see a doctor's son, be with him an hour 10 min., then spend 20 minutes driving home, to get just $10 or $15 dollars. Then you're messing up a day off, and for what? (Don't forget to subtract gasoline expense either.)

Getting $40 an hour tutoring, is not at all like having a $40 an hour job for 40 hours a week.
 

dave333

Hall of Fame
Oh, well I usually tutored people at the school library or taught at the band room after school, so I didn't need to do any driving. So I guess my payoff would have been pretty similar.
 

veroniquem

Bionic Poster
I'm a certified teacher and I take $40 an hour for private tutoring in foreign languages. I know people who take $50. I know a violin teacher who takes $75 an hour (but music is probly the most expensive). Sports are expensive too, my daughter takes private skating lessons for $80 an hour. Anything less than $30 an hour for private is a rip-off IMO.
 

meowmix

Hall of Fame
To the posters above:

The few people that have asked me are some of my friends. So far, I've arranged to tutor in the school library and in my neighbor's home (literally a 20 second walk from door to door). I do no driving. Considering that these ARE my friends, I guess 15 bucks isn't that bad?

Also, I'm not a college kid- I'm a high school kid. I THINK the two SAT subjects that I tutor in I have a decent handle on- I got an 800 on Math, and a 790 on critical reading (80 Math and 80 Crit Reading on PSAT)

For reference, my English teacher charges 40 bucks an hour for SAT tutoring. I think my physics teacher charges roughly 50 an hour (he only tutors kids that aren't his students).
 

Eph

Professional
I charge 30/hour for high school subjects and 45/hour for college subjects. You're charging way too little.

I don't tutor SAT or ACT as I'm opposed to it morally.

When I'm in Boston you can charge (almost) double.
 

crystal_clear

Professional
That's too cheap. Suppose you are going to tutor three people consecutively. It's not very likely you'll see one at 1, another at 2, and the third at 3. Instead, you'll have gaps, and you might have to drive around. You're not really making $15 an hour like you would if this was a normal job. Ask more, people are willing to pay it.
My piano teacher charges $30/hour and he teaches at home. My friend's piano teacher charges $40/hour and she has to spent one hour(2 ways) on the road to get to my friend's place. The gas cost her $5 and the teacher only made ($40-$5)/2 = $17.5/hour.
 
D

Deleted member 25923

Guest
I should tutor, but one of the subjects I understand best: math, has free tutoring at my school! If I helped though, I get extra credit :D
 

YULitle

Hall of Fame
I should tutor, but one of the subjects I understand best: math, has free tutoring at my school! If I helped though, I get extra credit :D

I got paid to tutor at just such an outfit on campus AND I still found people (people that I helped there for free) that would pay me for private tutoring as well
 
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