Varsity Tutors

What: Varsity Tutors helps find in-person and online tutoring jobs for experts in everything from reading to LSAT preparation, music lessons, workplace skills, etc.

Expected pay: $15 to $40 per hour

Husl Score: $$$$

Commissions & Fees: NA

Where: Nationwide

Requirements: Experience tutoring; pass a background check and screening process that will look at your academic history and require screening tests.  

Review: If you are proficient at anything from grammar to piano, you may be able to turn that proficiency into a tutoring position with Varsity Tutors. The site, which hires tutors for both in-person and online instruction, pays between $15 and $40 per hour. Tutors’ biggest knock against the site is that the $15 pay range is, by far, the most common.

You generally would need some advanced skills, such as the ability to tutor for advanced admissions tests, such as the LSAT or GRE, to earn more. And, if you’re tutoring in person, which requires commute time and gas, $15 an hour isn’t much.

However, tutors have the ability to teach online and are not penalized for turning down jobs that are outside of their chosen market. The site also pays tutors twice weekly by direct deposit, an attractive formula. Outside of wishing the pay were higher, we found few complaints about the platform.

You may be able to secure better-paying utoring positions through Wyzant and Chelsea International Education. 

What their users say: (From Glassdoor)

Work as many hours as you want! There are always more opportunities to fill up your schedule, as well as instant online opportunities. The online varsity tutors platform is very handy to create your schedule and keep track of your students and their contact info. Great pay for a young adult getting their first job. But going to in-person appointments means a LOT of driving around town. Clients often cancel for various reasons, so you need to remain flexible. It can be hard to actually connect for instant online tutoring, since the opportunities are accepted extremely quickly by other tutors.

I love the independence of scheduling and selecting my own students. I am creative and enjoy modifying my own curriculum to fit the student’s changing needs and seeing the positive results of my changes. Great support received from tech and counselors. I was not aware of the telephone support in the beginning. I finally found my niche in teaching reading to elementary school children. I would like to receive some assistance from Varsity Tutors on mileage, especially with gas prices increasing.

Low pay + lots of time to prep for sessions (if they are to be effective). For example: an online 1 hour session earned $15. Does not include the time spent prepping for session. Also difficult to get matched with clients (i.e not super abundant).

Many of the jobs are out of my set range that I provided, even though I live in a remote area. They tend to call at weird hours, like when I am teaching or during a scheduled Varsity Tutors session

Varsity Tutors essentially does all my “cold calling” for me so I don’t have to prospect for students. The frequent paychecks are great. twice a week! They also pay premium rates for special situations: learning disabilities, advanced students, etc.  I wish their portal was a little more robust. Sometimes i’d like to send and EXCEL spreadsheet or WORD attachment to a student via their messaging; but currently does not appear to accommodate Easy work around of course if just regular e-mail but I’ve found it an advantage to try to keep all the info in one place. Sometimes we will finish a session before the 1.5 hour minimum invoice time has elapsed. I’d like them to implement the option to charge any amount of time up to the time allotted for the session. Once, but just once, we finished a scheduled 1.5 hour session in 30 minutes. We just ran out of material and the student announce that was all the help he/she need that day.

This has been a great stepping stone into tutoring. The pay rates are about half of what other companies pay, but you do not need previous tutoring experience to apply. The subjects you tutor are based on which assessment tests you pass and your prior academic background. They give their tutors complete freedom in designing their own curriculum.

Being paid $15/hr to teach organic chemistry with a masters degree is ridiculous.

I received $15/hour, which was low after factoring in the non-billable hours of preparation I worked before meeting with a student)

They charge over twice as much per session as you make, and are not up front about this.

You receive no training, and the pay isn’t comparable to what you can make elsewhere.

The main downside is pay. GRE tutors are paid $33 per hour. The students are paying anywhere from $50-$90 per hour. So Varsity pockets anywhere from 33-63% of the income. It can be even worse for high school subjects, for which tutors only earn $15 per hour. It makes sense that Varsity needs to make some income to run their business, but taking this much as profit is exploitative to the tutors. Oh, and if you call and ask if there’s any possibility of higher pay, they hang up on you.

At Varsity Tutors you basically work for yourself. You get to choose what you tutor (as long as you are qualified to tutor it), your hours, and your distance limit. Most of the students I tutored were very cooperative and willing to learn. I met some pretty great kids through this job. The pay is pretty decent. You could make a lot more as an independent tutor, but that is the price of Varsity Tutors providing all the students for you.Running around to meet students at their house is difficult, especially without a car. Might be nice if VT had some designated meeting areas like local libraries or study centers so we could have our students meet us at a consistent location. Writing up notes for every single session you log can also be annoying especially if you and the student work on the same exact thing every week and you’ve already spoken to the parents in person about the lesson.Show Less

Lessons have a minimum meeting time which is frustrating if the student is having a particularly light week and doesn’t need the full 1.5-2hrs of help in one go, we should be able to log a lesson as short or as long as was needed.

Try Varsity Tutors