James (Jim) Frankenfield - Tutoring Services
I offer math tutoring, physics tutoring and engineering tutoring at levels from middle school through university level. (Specializing in high school, AP and A-Level, and university levels.)
My rates are competitive, other tutors with comparable backgrounds often charge 2-3 times as much. In some cases tutors charging as much or more than I do are still students and have not completed a degree in the area they tutor. Why hire a student when you can hire the professor?
Current Rates
My current base rate, subject to some negotiation in some cases, is $40/hour. This is subject to change in the future. This rate is per contact hour and includes my preparation as well as any materials I may sometimes send afterwards. (My preparation and follow-up represents a very significant amount of time which you are not charged for. I don't pack my schedule so full that I can't invest this time.) My fee also includes access to any resources I use such as MAA Webwork if you choose to make use of such resources. (I maintain my own Webwork installation available to students as well as others who can pay a nominal fee.)
Rate Negotiations
I am willing to negotiate different rates for different situations. For 2 or more students we can make some arrangement. If you want to commit to an entire semester of tutoring on a schedule and pre-pay we can negotiate a rate for that. I am also working on teaching actual courses which will have their own course cost through the site I use for that. Contact me and we can try to find an arrangement that works for you if possible.
Please note that while I will negotiate a price for 2 or more students I do not create groups. Group tutoring is the latest fad among revenue driven tutors who are often pushing clients in that direction. Group tutoring only works if the students are at the same level, studying the same material, and have more or less the same level of motivation.
Policies
Payments
I generally expect pre-payment for sessions. If we spend more time than planned by a billable amount (i.e. not a few minutes to finish something, which is no extra) that should be paid soon afterward. If you pre-pay for more time than we use I can either refund the difference or keep it as a balance for you on your account. The reason I often aski for pre-payment is to insure against no-shows. If a student is reliable and a parent/guardian is actively engaged and communicating regularly I may waive this. In many cases I've accepted payments immediately following a meeting. Unfortunately there are students who will and (have) abuse(d) this and fail to give advanced notice and in this case your prepayment will be forfeited.
Payments can be made via a transfer to a local account number in the US, Canada, UK, Georgia, and a few other countries. In the US I can accept Zelle instant transfers. If none of that works I can accept payment via paypal which allows for credit cards and should work globally.
Rates are subject to change but I will usually not raise it for existing students. If I do there will be plenty of notice and an opportunity to pre-pay at your current rate. If you have a balance I will not make any changes in rate until that balance is depleted at your current rate.
Cancellations, Tardiness
Missed appointments with no notice will be billed. If you arrive late by more than 10 minutes and we have a full session but finish late there will be a $10 fee in addition to the hourly rate for the contact time. Cancellations within 24 hours will incur a one hour fee, with half of that being available as a credit if you reschedule the missed appointment. Cancellations more than 24 hours in advance have no penalty.
Any missed appointments on my end will receive a full refund, of course.
I am generally on time and expect students to be as well. Within a few minutes.
Preparation
I expect students to be prepared with questions, problems (which, ideally, they have attempted or at least looked at). If I am informed in advance of the problems, concepts, and/or textbook sections requiring help I will review those in advance. This allows me to use our time most effectively and help as much as possible.
Technical Problems
Technical and utility problems are rare but always possible. On my end I generally have a fully charged computer battery and cell phone which I can use as a hotspot. If I disappear and it is due to power I should be able to reappear in a couple minutes, just wait. (Lighting may still cause us to reschedule if necessary.) Power cuts are not common here and the most common ones are usually just a few minutes. Technical problems on the student end (including but not limited to utility outages) will not result in any penalty. If they are too frequent we may need to pause our schedule until they can be resolved but this would be a most unusual situation.
Policy Changes
I reserve the right to change my policies at any time. There is no reason for this to be very common. One reason would be ongoing problems, such as repeatedly missing appointments. Another would just be a normal rate increase, which is not common and would include plenty of advance notice. Most policies are stated to be clear from the start but with the hope that they will not apply.