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indianajake
Joined: 30 Apr 2004
Posts: 7
Location: USA
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 Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 7:00 am Post subject: Doing private ESL tutoring on a U.S. college campus |
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| While I'm finishing up my graduate studies this fall I was thinking of trying to offer private ESL tutoring on campus. The college is in the midwestern U.S. and has a fairly sizable international student population. Would I be likely to find much demand in such an environment or would the overwhelming presence of people who speak English make it so that nobody would be willing to pay for a tutor? If you think that there might be any demand, please let me know what a good hourly rate would be along with any other pointers that you might have. |
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talawanda
Joined: 21 Jul 2004
Posts: 12
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| Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2004 2:47 am Post subject: |
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| If you must rent a room you will lose money. You will be bucking any government programs for ESL in the area. Also, you will be competing against such organizations as the Catholic Charities, which offer free class taught by unpaid volunteers. |
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Irish
Joined: 13 Jan 2003
Posts: 371
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| Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2004 3:23 am Post subject: You'll never get rich, that's for sure |
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| Would I be likely to find much demand in such an environment or would the overwhelming presence of people who speak English make it so that nobody would be willing to pay for a tutor? |
This question can only be answered by knowing the specifics of your situation. Never having been to the midwest, I'm afraid I can't help with that. I've done exactly what you're proposing but our situations may be too different to compare. If you want, pm me and we can discuss this in more detail.
One general suggestion I'd make is to compare whatever you have to offer (your studies, experience, etc) versus what's available to your prospective clients. Look at what kinds of tutoring services are being offered by your school and see how you can improve on that. If all you want to do is conversation practice, you're probably out of luck. With a specialization of some sort, you might earn a little extra spending money.
Good luck and congratulations on being almost finished with your degree. |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2004 6:12 am Post subject: |
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If you are talking about one on one tutoring (you post ads around campus with a phone number or email address), then you may find that very soon before ESL exam times, you get tonnes of calls from students who want to improve their English virtually overnight. That's what happens at the university I went to.
The rest of the time, though, you may not have many people calling. |
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indianajake
Joined: 30 Apr 2004
Posts: 7
Location: USA
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| Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2004 3:12 am Post subject: |
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| GambateBingBangBOOM wrote: |
If you are talking about one on one tutoring (you post ads around campus with a phone number or email address), then you may find that very soon before ESL exam times, you get tonnes of calls from students who want to improve their English virtually overnight. That's what happens at the university I went to.
The rest of the time, though, you may not have many people calling. |
This is basically what I was thinking about. There's plenty of bulletin boards around campus and I was thinking of putting up ads on them. The one thing that I don't know is how much to charge. I was thinking of doing the following scheme: Lessons are $10 an hour, first lesson half price. I'd also give a free hour of lessons for each new customer they refer. Does this seem to be on target or is this too high of a price? |
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