Varsity Tutors Review: What to Know Before You Sign Up as a Tutor

Varsity Tutors is a learning platform that connects students of all ages with tutors specializing in a variety of learning topics—from typical classroom subjects to test prep and homework help.

Tutors and students use the platform from all around the world, sharing their expertise through one-on-one tutoring and small group lessons. Since the company was first founded in 2007, Varsity Tutors has served over 10 million students.

As a subsidiary of the online learning platform Nerdy, Varsity Tutors offers one-on-one tutoring, large and small group classes, and self-study resources in more than 3,000 subjects. Varsity Tutors also partners with 500+ K-12 school districts to provide school-approved learning solutions.

What is Nerdy?

Nerdy.com is an online learning platform and the parent company of Varsity Tutors. Originally founded under the name Varsity Tutors, the company rebranded as Nerdy but continues to offer tutoring services under the Varsity Tutors brand name.

Is Varsity Tutors legit?

Varsity Tutors is a legitimate business, and many tutors make money from the platform. With that said, Varsity Tutors does not appear to screen students.

This means there’s a risk you’ll encounter students with bad motives, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that Varsity Tutors isn’t safe for tutors. You won’t be sharing any personal details, and tutors have the option to drop students at any time.

How Varsity Tutors works for tutors is pretty straightforward, although not just anyone can sign up as a tutor. First, you need to apply and get approval. Once accepted, you can begin offering one-on-one tutoring or small group lessons.

Varsity Tutors uses an algorithm to match tutors with suitable students. To get more tutoring gigs, you need to expand your expertise, show interest in opportunities quickly, and craft an impressive profile.

Costs and fees

It’s completely free to work for Varsity Tutors as a tutor. There are no signup fees or membership fees for tutors. Instead, Varsity Tutors makes money by charging learners.

With that said, there are rumors going around that Varsity Tutors charges students much higher rates than the tutor’s hourly rate, pocketing the difference. This equates to a nontransparent commission fee lowering the earning potential for tutors.

Subjects you can teach

Through one-on-one and live classes, tutors can teach a huge range of subjects on Varsity Tutors. Tutoring subjects are separated into four main categories:

• Academic: Classic school subjects for kindergarten to college grade levels.
• Enrichment: Special-interest subjects like art, chess, coding, STEM, or music for students of all ages.
• Languages: English/ESL tutoring as well as tutoring for other languages.
• Test prep: Tutoring for K-12 exams, college entrance exams, graduate school entrance exams, and even certification or licensing exams.

In addition to these subject categories, you can also specialize by offering tutoring for students with learning differences, such as dyslexia or ADD. You can also offer kindergarten-prep tutoring for preschool-aged children.

Eligibility requirements

Varsity Tutors does not require that you have any formal teaching experience. However, tutors must be over 18 years old. These may seem like pretty lax requirements, but the truth is that they only approve a small selection of applicants, so you’ll likely need additional qualifications to become a tutor.

Applicants with the following skills/traits usually get priority:

• Demonstrable teaching skills
• Communication skills
• Relevant educational credentials
• Expert-level knowledge of a particular subject matter
• Ability to develop and implement lesson plans
• History of academic excellence
• Friendly personality

During the application process, Varsity Tutors will check your academic background and professional experience, conduct a formal interview, and request that you complete a mock tutoring session. You’ll also need to pass a background check and verify your identity.

AI technology

Through their proprietary technology infrastructure Artificial Intelligence for Human Interaction (AI for HI), Varsity Tutors aims to improve learning outcomes and simplify lesson prep and assessment processes. They use this AI technology to screen tutor applicants, match learners with optimal tutors, assess student knowledge, and create AI-generated lesson plans for tutors.

Instant tutoring

In addition to planning regular tutoring sessions, you also have the option to do Varsity Tutor’s instant tutoring. With these live sessions, you’re instantly connected to a student in need of immediate tutoring.

Many tutors warn that instant tutoring is a big gamble, and you should only enroll once you’ve gotten plenty of experience on the platform in case things go wrong and you get hit with a negative review. Others claim that this feature attracts bad actors who use tutors to cheat on tests.

Locations

At the time of writing, Varsity Tutors is not accepting applicants from the following locations:

• Alaska
• California
• Colorado
• Delaware
• Hawaii
• Maine
• New Hampshire
• North Dakota
• Vermont
• West Virginia
• Puerto Rico
• Northern Ireland

However, this may change, so it’s worth checking their current restricted locations to confirm your eligibility to tutor for Varsity Tutors.

Varsity Tutors pays tutors an hourly rate that they determine based on factors like subject matter, experience on the platform, and student reviews. Unlike the case with some other tutoring platforms, you don’t get to set your own rates on Varsity Tutors.

In terms of how much Varsity Tutors make, anecdotal reports suggest that most tutors get offered a starting pay rate of $15–$18 per hour.

With that said, there is some flexibility when it comes to your Varsity Tutors salary. You can accept or decline the offered rate, or you can negotiate a higher rate. You also have the option to request a raise later down the line.

Some tutors report earning up to $40 per hour for extensive experience or specialty knowledge. Ultimately, the more you tutor and the better your reviews, the higher your chance of receiving an hourly raise.

How you’ll get paid

Varsity Tutors pays tutors via either direct deposit (within the United States) or PayPal (outside of the United States). Direct deposit payments are issued twice per week, and PayPal payments are issued every other Monday.

No-show policy

Varsity Tutors doesn’t specify a cancellation policy on their website. However, they do have a no-refund policy for client purchases.

Anecdotal reports also suggest that if you have a scheduled lesson with a student who’s a no-show, you may still be able to get paid, although it’s unclear whether the payment comes through automatically or if you need to manually bill the student for the session.

Getting started on Varsity Tutors is a straightforward process, but not everyone will qualify. The company claims that only 10% of applicants are accepted.

Before getting started, make sure you meet all the eligibility criteria. After that, just follow the steps below to apply to tutor on the Varsity Tutors platform.

1. Complete the initial application and video interview

This will require your contact information, education information, and work experience documentation. The application takes about 30–45 minutes to complete.

Tutors report that the video interview is prerecorded rather than a live interview. Instead, you’ll provide recorded video responses to questions and then a 5-minute lesson on the subject of your choosing, with 5 minutes for lesson planning.

2. Undergo a formal interview

You may hear back on scheduling a formal interview quickly after submitting your initial application, or it may take months. It depends on the platform’s hiring needs at the time.

3. Submit to a background check

If Varsity Tutors advances your application after your interview, they’ll ask you to submit information for a background check. This may take a few days to process and review.

4. Sign your contract and get started

Once you’ve received final approval and signed your contract, you’ll be able to accept “instant session” tutoring opportunities, which are available via the Varsity Tutors website, as students request them.

Otherwise, Varsity Tutors will notify you when a good tutoring match is available, based on your experience. You can then choose to accept or decline the opportunity. If you accept, you and the student will discuss and agree on a time for the tutoring session.

Online reviews and discussions indicate that the Varsity Tutors hiring process for new tutors often takes up to 2 weeks.

Where to download the Varsity Tutors app

App Store Google Play

Reviews from tutors using Varsity Tutors are mixed. The biggest complaints concern below-market rates. Some tutors also complain about difficult students.

The main quality that tutors love about the platform is its convenience. On top of that, because Varsity Tutors is so selective when it comes to tutors, the competition is manageable. There will always be students available and gigs to claim.

Plenty also point out that the low pay is really only an issue when you’re first starting out—as you gain more experience on the platform and more positive student reviews, you can request pay increases to make the Varsity Tutors salaries more worthwhile.

The cases below offer a snapshot of how tutors feel about whether or not Varsity Tutors is worth it, touching on both the good and the bad.

Case A:

“I’ve found it convenient as someone who tutors part-time to supplement my income. I get about 5-10hrs/week and get $35-$40/hr just tutoring generic SAT/ACT and the occasional college student. Less than I could (and do) get elsewhere, but the simplicity is an acceptable tradeoff for me.”

Case B:

“VT was my primary source of income for a couple years. There are some benefits, though I think the costs outweigh them, so I don’t work there anymore. The benefits are that there are a lot of students and I always had a full schedule. The drawbacks are that the pay is awful, the classroom software is buggy, tech support sucks, and oh yeah the pay is awful.”

Case C:

“I’m with Varsity for the convenience. Yeah, I could make many times more without them, but then I would have to find my own students, find and learn another online platform or figure out how to make tutoring in person work, and I’d have to handle payments and all that on my own. At this point in my life, I prefer taking a significant pay cut to have someone else take care of those things for me.”

Case D:

“I’ve been doing it for a couple of months and I don’t think it’s worth it. I’m tutoring second and third graders in Spanish and this isn’t really tutoring. It’s teaching. I spend at least two hours preparing for one hour of class. I’m going to do it a couple more weeks and then stop.”

Case E:

“Varsity Tutors is not worth it for the first several months. The thing is, if you’re a good tutor and are dedicated to succeeding, you can get 20% increases every 6 months. So, basically, your starting salary of $15 can skyrocket to like $31 in 2 years. If you are great at tutoring, you will basically set up templates for students in which they can learn and really not work too hard.

“Early on, it sucks. I’m 6 months in and don’t like it. But I got my first increase and I hate it a bit less.”

While Varsity Tutors is a legitimate platform with a lot of work opportunities, it also comes with a fair number of drawbacks. Many users like that it offers a very broad range of tutoring opportunities. Another benefit is that with a little patience, you can build up a steady stream of work.

However, the pay is very low compared to what you could earn as a tutor working independently, and the platform is reportedly buggy, leading to wasted time for tutors.

Pros and cons

Before you sign up to tutor on Varsity Tutors, carefully weigh up all the potential drawbacks and advantages.

Alternatives to Varsity Tutors

Varsity Tutors isn’t the only online tutoring platform out there. You can also explore these platforms like Varsity Tutors:

• Wyzant
• Tutor.com
• Outschool

All of these tutoring platforms offer a variety of subjects to choose from. You can also start your own independent tutoring business and find clients through local groups and social media platforms like NextDoor or Facebook.