What Tutor.com Is And Why Should You Care? 

Before you head over to their website to apply, read this article about what tutor.com is to know what to expect when pursuing this online career.

If you have the subject expertise and would like to earn money through online tutoring, you might qualify for their jobs. 

What Tutor.com Is

Tutor.com connects those who want to learn, with expert and qualified tutors online. The company started in 1998 and recruited about 100 tutors to work on one of the first interactive online classrooms.

It became a corporation in 2014 and partnered with public libraries for ensuring that students from all socioeconomic statuses have access to effective one-on-one help and tutoring.

It then worked with K-12 schools, universities, and colleges.

After it acquired The Princeton Review in 2014, it added The Princeton Review test prep services to its platform.

Nowadays, it operates with thousands of educational corporations and institutions, US Department of Defense and US Coast Guard Mutual Assistance for delivering over a million sessions of tutoring, homework assistance and test preparation each year.

How It Works

The company description that you can read on the website says that “Tutor.com offers one-to-one learning solutions for students through educational institutions such as colleges, universities, K-12 schools, and public and state libraries and through corporations for employee benefits and workforce development.”

With other online tutoring platforms, a student will search and look for a suitable mentor right from this platform. With tutor.com, students should first log in to their respective school’s or organization’s website.

Prospective Tutors

Over 100,000 prospective tutors apply to Tutor.com.

Each applicant goes through rigorous testing and evaluation where they should show his expertise in the subject he likes to teach, his teaching method, his mastery of an online teaching environment and his understanding of the company’s policies and principles.

After passing the application process, he should also pass a third-party background check. 

All these arduous assessments allow only 1.5% of applicants to become part of the tutor.com community of expert tutors.

The application process including subject exam (2-3 hours), mock tutoring session and background check may take up to 3 weeks to complete.

What you might find favorable about tutor.com is that it shoulders the cost of background check, unlike in other tutoring platforms like Wyzant and Takelessons where you must pay for your background check.

Subjects To Teach

To know if your skills and knowledge match up to the company’s platform, you need to double check its subject list that includes

• Math
• Science
• Finance
• Statistics
• Accounting
• Research Methods
• Essay Writing
• Nursing and more. 

Complete a competency exam if you wish to speed up your application.

Both tutors and students should understand that the principle of the platform is for a tutor to help a student learn how to solve a particular problem and not provide the answers.

Each tutor profile shows what details you must provide on your profile.

These crucial details include a professional-looking photo, the subjects you will teach, why you love tutoring, your educational background and what you do for fun.

It states here that the tutor.com network of tutors has 3,100 expert mentors who have taught their subjects in real-life teaching environments.

These mentors are certified teachers, graduate students, college professors, Master’s Degree holders, Doctorate degree holders and more.

Apart from possessing the expertise in their subject areas, these vetted tutors are knowledgeable in using the online classroom and using shared whiteboard/files and chat features to assist students in understanding the concepts of their subjects.

Tutor Responsibilities

This is an online job, so you must constantly relate and interact with your students via the internet when you help them in completing the homework and in understanding the topics they ask you for help.

It is a known challenge in an online learning environment about how to help students maintain focus on what they are studying. The same applies in online tutoring.

Thus, it is your responsibility to encourage your students to engage actively in your session.

You should help your students feel confident that despite the online setting, they can still learn and understand the subjects you are teaching.

To do all these, master the ability of using all the online tutoring tools and resources at tutor.com.

Requirements For Tutors

Regardless if you are a practicing or a retired teacher, a college student or a graduate student or any individual with experience and expertise in a certain field of interest that suits the concepts taught at tutor.com, you may apply as part time remote tutor at tutor.com.

Yet, there are specific requirements that you must meet. These requirements will readily tell you to continue with this or to look elsewhere for an online tutor position. These requirements include:

1. You must live presently in the US. Thus, you have no chance of acceptance if you are not a US resident.

2. You should have a Social Security Number. This is most likely for background checking.

3. You must have eligibility to work in the US, which includes the minimum working age. The minimum working age varies per state, but 18 years old is common.

4. You should have at least 5 hours a week availability to tutor.

5. You should have expert knowledge in your subject area.

6. You should fluently speak and write in English.

7. If you are a student, you should at least be a sophomore or at least a 4-year degree in a US or Canadian accredited university.

Just like other online jobs there are technical requirements that come with this position. The required tutor.com specs include:

1. Windows 7, or 8/8.1 or 10. If you are using a Mac computer, you need to install and run Windows OS through a multi-boot system so Tutor.com may consider your application.

2. At least 4 GB RAM memory (recommended is 8 GB)

3. At least 1.8 GHZ processor (recommended 2.4 GHz)

4. Wired or terrestrial or land-based internet (cable, fiber, DSL, etc) with 15 Mbps download speed/5 Mbps upload speed (recommended 20 Mbps download speed/10 Mbps upload speed)

5. Microsoft Office or similar software that can open and edit Word, Excel and Powerpoint files

6. Screen display resolution of at least 1280 x 720px (recommended 1920 x 1080px)

7. Headset or speakers/microphone

How To Apply

Start your application here. You first apply and provide your details online by clicking on the "Start Your Application" button on the link.

Choose "Create New Account" to open a new page where you must fill up a short form.

Provide your email address, password, first name and last name. After submitting these details, you will see a message on the screen saying that tutor.com emailed you your login info.

Remember that what you just did is to create your account. The actual application process only starts after this step.

When you continue your application, type your

• address
• country and
• phone number

You need to:

• confirm you are at least 18 years old
• claim if you can fluently speak Spanish and Vietnamese and
• state if you have ever worked for a US government agency.

You will see a note that while US residents may apply, it does not accept applicants from New Mexico.

The next page is where you have to tell about where you heard about tutor.com and if you have an authorization to work in the US. This probably applies to exchange students or scholars who only hold Student visas.

You may set your tutoring schedule and state how long you intend to tutor at tutor.com. Next, you need to confirm details about your computer and its technical specs.

The following step involves giving information about your educational background.

For the work experience section, state if you take an interest in teaching German or French, and if you have a degree earned outside the US. Also declare if you already have any tutoring experience.

For your tutor profile, you need to state if you lived in the US for the past 7 years. Your profile will display your name, education and your photo.

Once you have completed all necessary information, select the subject/s you wish to teach and take the exam for each subject.

How Much Do Tutor.com Tutors Make?

Subjects have varying hourly rates. Top quality incentives also await tutors who can provide prime quality tutoring.

Unfortunately, you will only have access to an additional payment schedule after completing the initial phase of application (subject exam).

Some claim that the pay here is deceptively low. Beginner tutors are under probation and they need to put in 5 hours of tutoring per week.

During this time, you may only tutor during non-peak hours, so you may only wait to get lucky and receive a tutoring session.

You might only tutor for one hour during a 4-hour block. You will not receive payment for your waiting time and could only get $2-3 per hour instead of the advertised $10 per hour rate.

Work Schedule

At tutor.com, a student may avail of tutoring services anytime of the day, except during Christmas, New Year’s Day, Independence Day and Thanksgiving day.

You may set your own work schedule.

Yet, consider what others claim regarding probationary tutors. While you may still pick hours convenient for you to tutor, they still limit you to the non-peak hours.

Conclusion

PROS

CONS