Varsity Tutors Reviews

I was unhappy with the first two tutors. We had several days of no tutorials. Each time they looked for a new tutor. I made them aware that much older, slow speaking and teaching would not work but they continued to schedule that way. They renewed my subscription $639 and told me I had 5 unused hours that could not be carried over. I am now having that issue escalated and stuck paying for another month that I do not want. I'm told my subscription ended yesterday (Sunday). Not easy to navigate to the best tutor, even though I was very clear when registering.

It's a company of scam artists. My husband booked four classes with Varisity tutors back in February. When he booked them he told the worker on call he wanted to take four classes and that's it. He would book more afterwards by himself if he needed it. Not ONCE did the worker on the phone mention it was a subscription. Not once!!! We only happened to notice that they were still charging us by chance months later and immediately cancelled (horrible customer support that you need to CALL to cancel by the way, that needs to be a click on your website!). They refuse to give us our money back and told us it's our fault for not realising it's a subscription WHEN THEY NEVER MENTIONED IT WAS ONE! Turns out they also pay their tutors pennies compared to what they charge students for lessons. I will advise everybody I know to stay far away from this website.

Deceiving sales tactics is what this company is all about. I was told to sign for a limited-hour one time service while they get you in an auto renewable membership program. When I called to cancel and refund my money, they say that their policy is "no refunds", they don't provide any customer service and leave you to get charge on your credit card on future services that customer did not sign for nor are going to use.

We were told that Varsity tutors not only vetted all their tutors, but provided a personalized tutoring experience when it came to 1:1 SAT prep. During their sessions the tutor, Darian, told her to skip over the questions she struggled with and only reinforced what she already knew. They then no showed for their last session for the day before the test. When I called to complain the company, they basically said it was my fault for not reporting the issue sooner. 100% believe Varsity Tutors was a waste of time and money.

On Sept 28, 2025 I enrolled my daughter over the phone after the sales rep tailored a tutoring program for her needs: 8 hours of SAT tutoring to be spread between then and Oct 3rd as her SAT test is scheduled for Oct 4th. My needs were perfectly clear from the beginning of the call and she quoted me $729 CAD for those 8 hours. She NEVER mentioned this had to be a monthly subscription that was going to be an auto-pay each month, so much to my dismay and surprise when my credit card was charged a couple of days ago for another $729.

I found the program to be a complete waste of time and money. When my daughter retested on ACT after paying for two months of training, her score did not improve at all. Even worse, when I tried to discontinue the tutoring via e-mail, I learned a week later that company hit my checking account for $629. It refused to refund this charge stating that my daughter or another child could use the hours since it had been paid. I deem its actions unprofessional and unethical. Will strongly discourage others from using it. Stay away!!!

Unprofessional! They charge cards from minors without parents approval. Not only that, when you call for refund they don’t want to give you the money back, even they didn’t provide any service. They are very rude. I wouldn’t advise let your minor talk to them. Scam tutors

I signed up for tutoring for my son and it’s been a nightmare. From being overcharged on day one, to never receiving the promised assessment, to getting the runaround from IT after they set up my account wrong — nothing was ever resolved. When I finally asked for a refund (having never had a single session), they flat out refused. Meanwhile, I was even getting texts from the tutor with no way to respond. This company feels like a total scam. Save yourself the stress and your money — I do NOT recommend them.

I was looking for a company that could help me with my Salesforce Admin work. They were quick to react and find a tutor. I was was excited to get started. However, when the time came for the tutor to join the call, they cancelled. They asked for a time-change, and I said 'yes'. Yet, within the next hour I received another cancellation from the tutor with NO mention of rescheduling. When I first came to Varsity Tutors I mention the time criticality of the tutoring session and they said they would handle that. Now, I'm going to be 48 - 72 hrs post my initial session. They don't seem to be very dependable or reliable on their schedules for their tutors.

When I signed up with Varsity Tutors, I was explicitly promised that a tutor would be matched to my daughter based on specific criteria I provided. I agreed to try the service for one month only—four sessions total—and made it clear, multiple times, that I did not want a renewing subscription. The tutor they assigned was a poor fit, and after just two sessions, my daughter chose not to continue. I accepted the loss of the remaining sessions and walked away, under the assumption that I had fulfilled my one-month agreement. Not once did anyone follow up for feedback or offer support—despite assurances that they would.

They are scam artists, they lie to you during sales pitch and don’t have a working platform! Poor customer service! Their learning platform has constant technical issues, as to where you can’t get through a session, they blamed the tutors, we changed tutors, we called tech dept, they admitted it’s a platform issue. They don’t have an interactive platform you can’t engage on the platform mutually. It’s all a scam!

Nobody told me that my purchase are non-refundable and when I was asking the salesperson if my quote would be in USD or CAD, she strongly confirmed that it would be in CAD... In the end, I got charge with 1000$ and couldn't reverse anything due to the "contract" I was bounded by, even when I told them that I didn't see anything on my payment screen and was unable to access the terms and conditions in my account.

Varsity Tutors is all about membership (money). I took the class I need for a new job I was starting. Finished the class and naturally canceled my membership. There was no need to continue paying for something I wasn’t going to use at that time. I was given videos to review to go back over information. Now I’m unable to access them without a membership. I was told I could if I reactivate my membership for some class I don’t need. So if pay them another 350-400 dollars I can look at the classes I paid for already. Never was I told this in the beginning. The response in a very ugly way, you need a new membership. Careful with Varsity, get all the information upfront.

I would not recommend Varsity Tutors. The first tutor my daughter “matched” with was constantly changing the time of their sessions or would simply not show up. When they did show up, they had a very difficult time explaining the concepts in a way my daughter could understand due to a language barrier. This was particularly frustrating because she had a very tight schedule in which to prepare for her ACT test. Basically, a month wasted! We requested a tutor change twice before they actually “matched” her with a different tutor.

We wanted to to have a great experience for my son who is preparing for high school. He has some severe learning difficulties and needs the help. The cost is considerably more than a local in-person tutor, but we opted for this because of all the other resources available that anyone in the family can use. We ended up not being able to use much of any of the other resources; despite the breadth of offerings, there wasn't much of any interest or use to my kids. The downside of the services came with one tutor who chatted with my son about video games and movies for about half the session. Then he no-showed a session and still billed us.

We were introduced to Varsity Tutor via free hours sponsored by my company/Bright Horizon. When we ran out of hours under our BH package, we decided to purchase a monthly Varsity Tutor membership. However, we were retroactively charged for hours of over $1460. When quizzed, they claimed that the tutors were special tutors at different rates and were not covered by Bright Horizon. Buyers beware.

Be aware -- the tutoring packages you purchase prior to meeting any tutors are NON REFUNDABLE even if you try one session and it just doesn't seem to be a fit for your child. They will cancel your "membership" if you request -- but refuse a refund of unused sessions. Do not purchase a package until you know it will work for your student as you will not get a refund.

Wow what a scam. I had a tutor who rescheduled or cancel each session I booked. Eventually I requested a new tutor and got reassigned but would not be able to complete my hours before the new payment schedule. I spent all day on the phone to get my hours reinstated, only for the platform to cancel my tutoring and lose my hours completely. I got 50% of the service I paid for. DO NOT RECOMMEND. Target Test Prep, Princeton Review, Manhattan Prep are better resources.

I signed my granddaughter (I have custody) up at the beginning of May. I had two sessions all month. I asked for feedback after the first session, but what I got was vague. In the second session, she was sick. When we proceeded with the makeup session, technical difficulties arose. The tutor said she didn't know what to do and said we could meet next week. The following week, my granddaughter had her session. Again, vague updates. My granddaughter requested the tutoring, but tonight she cried and said she was not comfortable, so I called to cancel. At this point, I was not happy with the service. I was told it was fine. She would be cancelled.

Extremely Disappointed – Misleading Charges and No Accountability. I’m incredibly dismayed by my experience with Varsity Tutors. I was charged for 14 hours of tutoring but only used 7 hours total. Despite purchasing a 4-hour package upfront, I was inexplicably charged in the same billing period for an additional 2 hours—even though I had only taken 2 hours of sessions that month. This overbilling occurred two months in a row, and despite multiple attempts to resolve the issue, no refund or credit has been provided.

My experience with the actual tutors has been excellent! The Varsity admin side is disorganized. I was charged after cancelling, the tutor-matching algorithm often requires cycling through 3–5 tutors before finding the right fit and there’s a clear breakdown in communication between departments. I would not recommend based on the administrative experience.

Please be careful if you use Varsity Tutors learning program. They are NOT transparent. They sign you up for a renewal subscription. We canceled with our tutor and was then billed an additional month. When we called, we were told by a rude woman that she is a "senior" such and such title and there's no way for a refund since we should have canceled yesterday. Scam in my opinion.

I wanted to take language lessons for a trip later this year. I was up front that I was looking to explore options in tutoring while taking Varsity for the first month. At the end of that time, I found an option that was better suited for my needs and looked to cancel my subscription. The cancellation was fairly straightforward, but I saw that I was pre-billed for an additional month of time and requested a refund for this which they refused. They cited their terms and conditions as support. Pre-billing for this re-fusing a reasonable refund request and hiding the support for it in the terms and conditions is unethical. Bare minimum a policy like this should be far better communicated than what it was in my experience.

I changed my 1 star to a 4 star because Varsity Tutors did reach out to me and offered a full refund, which restored my faith in them. The client experience team member that reached out to us was very kind and courteous. When my daughter needs more services, we may even engage with them again. My only suggestion is to ask lots of questions up front in order to thoroughly understand all that they have to offer in between each of your private lessons.

Updated on 05/03/2025: We seem to have come to an impasse. While they have offered to refund me money for hours they did not notify me that I went over, they have offered no resolution for there being no study material, etc. for their students that are studying for the Fundamentals of Engineering exam. They gave me documents to sign for the refund that comes with the stipulation that I amend (give five stars) or remove my reviews but I will not sign until the underlying issue of no study materials being present on Varsity Tutors’ site gets resolved.

Varsity Tutors has been essential in helping achieve my goals. I passed the PMP on the first try after 2 months of tutoring with the most knowledgeable tutor. They opened my eyes to the process of the PMP test and what will help me long-term in my career. Thank you Varsity Tutors!

If I could give zero stars, I would. After several months with the company of four-day-a-week tutoring sessions, I learned my son's membership was cancelled on a Sat through an email at 4:30 pm on Sat or so. I immediately called and spoke to someone around 4:35 pm EST. Gave them a new cc and let them know around 2 am I got a charge from that cc that I didn't authorize, and when I contacted the credit card account immediately at 2am today, they had to cancel the card. Today was the 29th and I wasn't due to be charged for the monthly tutoring again until the 11th.

Resolved.

I relied on Varsity Tutors for years, and the service was excellent—until they introduced a membership model. I adapted, but problems escalated when my oldest son graduated and my younger son faced health challenges. I was assured we could pause tutoring and resume with a flexible monthly plan—no long-term commitment and the ability to cancel anytime.

First of all this service is really expensive and there is no guarantee they will actually help improve your grade. I signed up and got a tutor for organic chemistry using this service. My tutor not only did not help me get a better grade on my next exam he was going over our scheduled hour time and I was getting charged on my credit card for that extra time without even knowing. My card was automatically charged for another months service and when I tried to cancel they wouldn't give me my money back. I told them since I didn’t do better on my exam using their tutor I was having to drop my class then retake it again the next semester.