MyGuru’s prices for private, 1-1 tutoring range from $45 to $70 per hour, with 5, 10, or 15% discounts for investing in 5, 10, or 15 hours in advance.  However, you are never “locked in,” and can obtain a refund for unused hours at any time.

As a boutique tutoring and education provider, MyGuru represents a unique option for students interested in private, 1-1 in home tutoring – there are few other firms like it.  Read below to learn more about how MyGuru fits in the tutoring landscape, or skip here to review our pricing in more detail.

As a potential student, consider your options:

‘Find it Yourself’ Tutor Databases

Web-sites like Craig’s List, UniversityTutor, Tutormatch, TutorNation, and Premier Tutor are fundamentally databases of tutors where anyone, regardless of quality level or experience, can post contact information and make themselves available to tutor.  As a student, you need to review profiles carefully, reach out to several options to see who responds in a timely manner, check references, and coordinate scheduling and payment.

While this is typically the lowest cost way to obtain a private tutor (hourly rates are likely to range from $20 to $50 on sites like these), you must spend a lot of time finding the appropriate tutor, and if you are unhappy, getting your money back will be difficult.  On the positive side, you can usually find a few people in your area and subject, as these sites generally list hundreds of available tutors in almost any subject imaginable.

Learning Centers and Tutoring Agencies

Learning centers (i.e., Huntington Learning Center) and tutoring agencies  (i.e., VarsityTutors) pre-screen, recruit, train, and monitor their tutors on some level.  You pay the learning center or agency, which schedules sessions and often has a physical location.  Learning centers typically have a physical location, while tutoring agencies often do not.  Learning centers and tutoring agencies typically price in the $40-$80 range per hour.

MyGuru

As a provider of 1-1, in home private tutoring, MyGuru falls into the “tutoring agency” category, but is somewhat unique for a few key reasons:

• we are more selective with who we recruit – we maintain a small, prestigious team, as opposed to continually growing our list of tutors as long as they meet a minimum standard
• we combine tutoring with additional education products and services that help our students succeed (i.e., online products, college/career exploration tools, admissions consulting, test prep books, etc.)
• we offer a money back guarantee
• we are often more affordable – we charge $50-$65 per hour, as opposed to $40-$80 per hour in the Learning Centern and Tutoring Agency category as a whole

‘Branded’ Tutoring and Test Prep Companies

The final category contains the likes of Kaplan, The Princeton Review, or Manhattan GMAT.  With proprietary test preparation tools and processes, well equipped physical locations, money back guarantees, and well known and trusted brands, these companies certainly know how to prepare students for standardized tests.

However, they also have signficant downsides.  First, in an attempt to expand as quickly as possible, they employ many tutors who, though they may do well on standardized tests, are not good tutors or teachers.  Second, their one-size-fits-all group test prep sessions are more expensive than MyGuru’s private tutoring (on an hourly basis), yet basically consist of reviewing the exact same concepts that are well articulated in any reasonable test prep book.  These group test prep sessions tend to be a very ineffective option if you are at all in need customized help.  Finally, these companies simply charge a lot of money for private tutoring – upwards of $150 per hour in some cases (see below).

Comparision (Pricing is Per Hour)