(Varsity Tutors Referral: For your convenience, if you are here in order to receive the $25 or $50 bonus here is my Varsity Tutors referral link.)
About a month ago I decided to look for an additional source of income. After thinking about it for awhile I ended up realizing that tutoring was the perfect match for me.
I was a recent graduate who did well in school and had achieved a stellar GMAT score. Once I realized I was a good fit for being a tutor, my search began for the best tutoring company to work for.
While many tutors are very successful through in person business that they develop on their own, my lack of tutoring experience and desire to tutor conveniently from home ultimately led me to choose Varsity Tutors.
Varsity Tutors has definitely lived up to the hype and allowed me to start my tutoring business with ease. What follows is an inside look and analysis of working for Varsity Tutors.
The Basics
Varsity Tutors is an online platform that connects tutors with students for either in person or online tutoring sessions. Tutors can register to offer a huge selection of courses. Pretty much every course you could need tutoring in is there.
Tutors are paid between $15 and $25 depending on the level of the course they provide tutoring for.
Getting Students
Once you have successfully registered as a tutor, Varsity Tutors will start sending you opportunities (students you can accept or decline) almost instantly. I receive anywhere between five and ten opportunities each day, not including instant opportunities (more on that later). I extremely pleased and honestly surprised with how quickly I had students to start tutoring.
This is an example of what your opportunities board might look like at a given time:
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As you can see, plenty of opportunities are posted daily based on the different subjects you express interest/ in tutoring. The more subjects you can tutor, the more opportunities you will see.
When you click on the “view details” button you will be informed of that particular student’s goals, as well as their availability. It is then up to you to accept or decline the opportunity.
Scheduling
Once you have students you can easily schedule appointments on their integrated calendar. Here is what my schedule looked like last week:
The interface is extremely intuitive and you can sign up for reminders straight to your phone if you download the Varsity Tutors app. The app is great and comes with all the same features as the website.
Another thing that Varsity Tutors does is protect tutors from being left high and dry by students. If a session is cancelled within 24 hours of the scheduled time a tutor will be compensated $20. If a student fails to cancel a session and does not show up the tutor will receive full compensation for that session.
Tutoring Online
24 hours before a scheduled session Varsity Tutors will send both the student and the tutor a link to their online session. All you have to do is follow the link or join through the website at the time of your scheduled appointment.
Once you have joined the session and completed a video check, mic check, and connection check, you will be good to go.
The platform is pretty great. It contains video feeds for the student and tutor on the left side and the rest of the screen is basically a digital whiteboard. Unlike a regular whiteboard though, practice problems can be uploaded to the board with ease.
The platform also offers the convenience of screen sharing, which comes in handy in sessions where the student wants to use a resource (like GMAT PREP) that has its own, non-downloadable problems.
You can even share YouTube videos that you think illustrate concepts well and watch them together with your student. All around, the platform is user friendly and contains great features.
Instant Tutoring
Varsity Tutors offers their students the option to request instant tutoring. When a student requests instant tutoring for a subject that you offer you will be notified and have the option offer an instant session. If you allow notifications they will look something like this: 
This feature is one of my favorites. If you find yourself just sitting around with a few hours to kill you could easily turn those hours into good money.
Instant tutoring is especially popular during exam time and if you happen to tutor a high demand subject your services may receive “surge pricing.” During these times of peak demand it is normal to make at least $30 an hour!
Getting Paid
Everyone’s favorite part of work is made easy with Varsity Tutors.
The only effort you have to put in is setting up direct deposit . After that deposits are made twice a week. Yes, you read that correctly, twice a week. Here is what my first two weeks looked like:
My tutoring business is now a solid secondary income. It feels great to be in control of my free time and have the option of making that time lucrative if i so choose.
If you like what you’ve read and think you would like to sign up then keep reading!
Joining Varsity Tutors
Joining Varsity Tutors is a straight forward process. Click Here to go to the application. By following that link you are applying as someone referred by a current Varsity Tutor (me) and will be entitled to a $25 starting bonus. The bonus will double to $50 if you qualify to tutor in ACT, SAT, Algebra, Calculus 1 or Statistics.
Just follow the application instructions and you’ll be on your way! Best of luck on starting your very own tutoring business!
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If you’re interested in other ways to make a second income check out “Finding Your First, Second Income.”
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