Varsity Tutors Reviews

The platform for Varsity Tutors also allows you to have the webcam and the whiteboard and then we could share screens. So Chris could see my desktop and every single problem I was working on. It was all real-time. They also have that platform where it records your session so I was able to go back and review things when it came time for the quiz or a discussion question. It's a total game changer especially for online learners and adults studying topics that are not their strong suits. Even when you sit face to face with a tutor, you’re not necessarily gonna remember everything you cover. I had been halfway through the algebra course and I was totally failing and bombing everything. I got 60% but after class, I got a high B because of Chris. Varsity Tutors has been great and I've recommended them to a couple of my colleagues. Varsity will always be my first tool to go to from here on out.

I was told by the company that the tutors would work around my schedule and come to my home. I immediately asked to cancel, and was talked into working with another tutor. This guy arrived to my home an hour late! I didn't even bother working with him and asked for a full refund which I was promised if it did not work out with the second person. Now I am days away from taking the test because of the time I wasted with this company and will for sure fail my test! My 15 year old cousin started tutoring me today and she taught me more in 10 mins meanwhile, the tutor from the company taught me NOTHING.

How can you have tutors who did not ever take the exam tutor for the exam??? They initially refunded me more than I paid and like an honest person I called and let them know the amount was wrong. Now, they only refunded half of my money when I was told the money would be refunded in full. Do not waste your money with this company!!!! I refuse to remove this post until they make things right with me and refund me the full amount I was promised. Thank you for wasting my time and causing me to fail the GRE.

Our teen did not learn any strategies for the SAT - this was a complete waste of money and of time. We ended up with a lot of hours left - mostly because of the serial cancellations. When I sought to get a refund for these hours I was told it was far too late to get a refund. I was completely stonewalled. I think this company hires anyone who wants to make a little extra money, and passes them off as 'qualified.' I was extremely disappointed and feel ripped off.

Friends should give Varsity a try. They are helpful, professional and they’re specific to the learner. It’s a little hard to do it over the computer but it works out because they’re able to put up different sample questions up on the screen for you and walk you through. They make up for the fact that it’s not one-on-one by using some of the abilities of the program that they use to be able to give you the best possible learning experience. It was good and I would recommend it.

I learned about accounting, but he also taught me a bit about computers, like how to use excel and different things. So, I learned more than I was expecting to. The reps of Varsity Tutors were really attentive and always checked in to make sure things were going well. And if I ever had a problem, they were really on top of it. I would tell others that Varsity Tutors would be a great way to get help, and not just get enough help to pass the class, but really learn some things that you could use later on.

As per Sandra, maybe Varsity Tutors is not the company for me. I'm not sure why she didn't want to share this information up front unless she had something to hide. If you are asking me to spend almost $600.00 for 6 hours of service I should at least be able to obtain the qualifications of the person that I paid for. I'm so grateful that I read the reviews because the rates are expensive and I can't afford to waste money.

We use the service for my two oldest daughters, the younger one has special needs (ASD), so it’s understandable we’ve had a hard time finding a tutor that fits her needs. We’ve tried again and again, around 10 or so tutors (some good, some bad) and she seems to be getting no benefit from the tutoring. No increase in grades, no retention of learned material, etc. Our oldest daughter graduated and is doing some tutoring herself. So, we no longer find the service useful and we want to move on.

We call to get a refund for our unused hours ($5300+) and are told of this 30 day policy and are not entitled to a refund. If we have auto pay set up every month and we can’t consistently schedule tutors every month, how can this policy possibly be an effective policy? It’s deceitful and completely audacious for this company to somehow believe they’re entitled to keep my money for a prepaid service that has not been provided. The website says 100% satisfaction guarantee. Don’t believe this. The sales people tell you unused hours can be refunded, don’t believe this.

Are we expected to call every 30 days and get a refund for unused hours because y’all can’t find a tutor to come out here? What a ridiculous policy. The sad part is we have 3 younger children and I think the service could be useful for children without special needs, but we won’t be doing business with this deceptive company. We will definitely be using someone else in the future for the rest of our children. As for this issue, my husband and I are irate and our next call will be to our lawyer to resolve this matter.

We had an ACT tutor for my son for his test. He took it twice and he actually got his Science score up by seven points, which was huge, and raised his overall score to a 33. That was good and we were thrilled. Even locally, I wasn't able to find someone who could tutor to that level and really work with him in the Math and Science sections. Lia, the ACT tutor, was awesome and she gave him tips and helped him figure out and identify the areas that my son needed more work on. For the Math sections, it was on quickly identifying that he needed more work in probability and taking the time to go through those type of questions. And she was very good about giving him extra material to work with in between, pointing him to areas in the Varsity site, and which ACT books to get, and working through chats with him. And then, she was very organized.

We used Zachary for some extra Math help for both kids just for class. Being able to schedule extra time with him before their final exams at the end of the year was super and it really helped. They both really liked him and said he was very clear in his teaching style. And then, we had Alex who did both Human Geography and World History with my daughter. I talked to him a little bit and between the two of us, we worked out a good schedule for Cecilia. We're definitely going to be using Alex for Hurricane History for both kids next year again because he was super.

We felt comfortable going into the AP exam. My son was in an AP class, but he was the only one taking the AP in his school. They weren't teaching to prepare him for that test specifically, so Varsity really filled the gap for us. My daughter also had two AP History exams that covered a lot of material. We wanted her to have some supervised review in advance of when the school would begin it and she had a great tutor for that as well. My son met with Rishi and studied with him for his US History AP and he did a good job. We don't have AP scores but he got a 730 on his SAT subject tests. He felt that the AP subject tests were better for him and he felt prepared going in. All of these History classes are a lot to go through.

We also found a Chinese tutor who did a great job. Elaine did the Chinese and she not only met with my son for an hour and a half to do the test prep, but as we got closer, she said that a lot of it was good but he could use a little bit more practice with the fluency. We scheduled a second session for just an hour where she would just work on verbal skills so they could do an hour and a half of working for the class and on the test and what he'd need, and then an hour of extra practice. That made a huge improvement in his goal in the course of two months.

Every once in a while, you get a tutor, maybe a great tutor, who doesn't exactly click with your child's learning style that would work best. And other customers usually would say that they are not sure about it which I liked because you don’t feel obligated to continue. Varsity has a lot of good tutors and you could work with someone else right away. So, we were able to get down to tutors that clicked with the kids. And after the first couple of tutors were so good, we kept adding more because it's getting the best of this world when you have public school and then you can add some tutoring and it's like getting that private school education but for a bit less.

We really had a great experience and we're going to use Varsity again. In the fall, we're gonna start the ACT a little earlier for my daughter than we did for my son because she's a little anxious on big multiple choice tests. We're gonna use exactly the same tutor we had.The quality of the tutors is excellent, that the ability to meet with the tutor online is really easy to schedule and is easier for the kids and the price for tutoring was about the same as what we find locally, but the actual quality of the tutoring and the diversity of tutors you can have is much greater. It was a really good experience and we would definitely stick with them. I completely recommend them to anyone such as all the moms whom we speak with about finding tutors.

With Varsity Tutors, you also have the opportunity if you wanna meet somebody in person or you’d rather work online. And if one tutor’s not really working out, then you have the ability to move to another. I like the platform too, but sometimes it had a couple of faults, especially with internet. For some reason, when my internet went out for two seconds, it cut out between me and the tutor. But other than that, the experience was really good. I would recommend the program to a bunch of people.

I would speak to Varsity and let them know what subject area my daughter was looking for. They would place her with a tutor and the tutor would then contact her via email, set up a time, and then they would do a FaceTime type of session. There was one tutor that she really felt like didn’t help at all. I called Varsity and they took care of it. They said, “No problem. We’ll give you the time back. We’ll give you another tutor.”

Other than that, the tutors have helped her. My daughter was able to relate to them and talk. When she'd have an upcoming test in a particular subject, she and her tutor would review all the materials. There was a person who did SAT prep as well. They went over different areas and ways to prepare one's self including time management and other things like that. My daughter has already graduated and it was definitely a positive with Varsity Tutors. It was totally worth it.

Original Review: June 8, 2018

We were told to buy the package. The basic package is 9 hours, $65/hr for grade 6+. $585 total. They encouraged us to buy the next level package of 15 hr as we will get some discount but not the 9 hr package. And if we can't use all hours we can get a refund for unused hours within 30 days. Once we asked for refund of our 3 unused hrs, we were told that they will only refund us about $82 instead of $195.00 ($65 x 3 hrs = $195) as we got that package as a special deal. That was NOT true! It is a regular package, not even 1 penny saving. In addition they said I should have bought hours as needed not to buy a package. That is also NOT true! They have never given us that option!

When they do, I'll give you guys a 5 star review, no questions asked.

Original Review: May 23, 2018

I hired Varsity Tutors to find 2 tutors for my son, Physics and Math. When I paid for the service, over the phone I was told that any unused hours would be refunded. I specifically asked any conditions applied, and the agent said "NO". They did find a Physics tutor, but were not able to find a good math tutor, tried several times and simply failed to find a good fit for the material my son needed help with. Now that I want my unused hours refunded, they say they can't because there is a 30 day window after you make the payment to request a refund.

They made me sign a pretty long online document which states the 30 day clause, which they fail to disclose over the phone when they're eager to get your money. My issue here is that they lied to me over the phone, and that is not correct. They will not honor a verbal agreement, which by the way is recorded by them when you make your payment. I want the money refunded because they were not able to provide the service they promised. I would highly recommend using a different company.

I've been impressed with Varsity. I've read their Yelps and some people are like, "I didn't find anybody for me," but my experience was the opposite. It was like Varsity found someone immediately. The first person they found for ECE probably wasn't totally appropriate. She was not a craftsman and she kinda flaked on us setting up appointments, cancelling, and then saying her computer was broken. I gave her two attempts and then I called Varsity and told them it wasn't working. And within 48 hours, they had Saudrick for us. Also, every time I've given them feedback, they've responded so, I'm pleased.

And then, we were trying to set Will up for Chemistry and Varsity found some excellent people for him but time-wise, it wasn't working for him. And he was finding he could do the chemistry, so far. Still, there was a huge improvement in his learning experience since using a tutor through Varsity. And it spilled over, not just from the ECE but to everything. He had a bad first quarter at college. He ended up with MRSA, which is a bad infection and he was septic. And he didn't tell us. He should have withdrawn for the quarter, which he didn't and did very poorly. And I think it was devastating to him and having Saudrick help him master this ECE turned him around in all of his classes. He ended up with three A's and a B from being on academic probation.

They were also super flexible and accommodating as a company. For example, you sign up for a certain block of hours for tutoring. However, we needed a couple of more hours in addition to the initial block. They broke their normal business model of buying a block of five to just giving us one extra session because that's all we needed. The account managers had the autonomy to execute without going to be bureaucratic and difficult.

In addition, the tutors were talented and professional. They interacted with our daughter in a way that put her at ease, lowered the anxiety and made it as fun as it could be. We really appreciated the tenor of the engagement with the tutors. They were very effective, too. It was a two-hour block where the tutor is working with a 14-year old and they were able to keep her engaged with a smile of her face. Our case was that we decided to look at boarding schools late into my daughter's freshmen year of high school until she didn't have really the runway that most kids do to prepare. We tried to compress a lot in a month or five weeks time. It was amazing that Varsity Tutors was able to help us get there.

As a parent, you want to be able to help your child but you don't necessarily refresh on the thing that they're learning. So, they have the spot tutoring where you can simply open up Varsity Tutors any time of the day or night and an available tutor in that domain will then present themselves on your screen and you buy a block like an hour session.

They also have a fantastic interface and their software is great. You get a visual like face-time ask session with the tutors, so you see them and you're talking to them in one quadrant of the screen, and another quadrant, they're able to put up questions, and in another quadrant, there's a work space where the tutor can visually show the student how to solve the problem. It may not have been the same reaction for my daughter, but it felt like you get to play Jeopardy. It has a little bit of a game show. You do it and see their questions and then you have so much time to solve it. It's fun and it was as painless as it could be.

My daughter is a good student. She was taking board to get into one of the elite boarding schools in the country which is Lawrenceville. It's a number three rank, like one of the most selected boarding schools, 10% admission, and she got in. So, it was mission accomplished from the test perspective. We were really happy. I'm impressed with the company that I would love to be an advocate in any way that I can to help them.

Original Review: May 15, 2018

First of all, I liked the tutor. However, I paid a lot of money for ACT tutoring. When my daughter was first assigned a tutor, I was told to wait for a call. A call never came. When I finally called ACT, they assigned a new tutor with no explanation for the prior tutor failing to contact me. The new tutor came. Although they tell you it is at your convenience, believe it with a grain of salt. The tutor promptly told us that weekends did not work for her because it was too far to drive and our home was closer to her work so it was easier for her to tutor during the week. She repeatedly told us she was going to give us the name of reference materials, but, even after repeated assurances, she failed to do so. She canceled repeatedly. Some cancellations were fine, i.e., sick, flat tire, etc. But after 3 cancellations, I began to question it. Then she was sick right before the ACT.

Meanwhile, I had been telling her we needed to do the tutoring more than once a week to get our sessions completed. She said she understood. The ACT arrived and my daughter still had one outstanding session remaining. Since her school was offering an ACT a couple of weeks later, I told the tutor we wanted the last session. That was scheduled with no acknowledgment that she failed to make the required number of sessions before the first ACT! (If I hadn't gone online to check to see if Varsity fulfilled their contractual obligations, I don't think she or Varsity Tutors would have mentioned it!) Then, my daughter got a rather mediocre score on the ACT. Seriously, it was a score she had gotten on her PSAT with no tutoring! Save your money!!!

I signed my daughter up for the high school AP Taxes, which is a hard course. We went through a process with several tutors, and they were good but I was looking for a fit for my daughter. Varsity was patient with me and they probably would have went through more if I needed them to. But they found a really great match for my daughter. And my daughter had one session with this tutor. She liked the tutor but the online thing was not for her, and it may be because she's younger or because of the subject matter. My daughter said there has to be somebody right next to her, which I think she needed for her confidence level, too. And it's hard to convey that over the phone.

We were completely signed up but we didn't end up finishing our sessions. We have already paid but there is a guarantee in 30 days. I called Varsity and I explained what was happening. All I had to pay for was the time that that tutor spent, which was an hour and a half. And then, the rest of my money was refunded. I have planned on quitting because the important thing was for my daughter to get helped for this incredibly challenging class. And then, we ended up finding somebody locally that she could sit down with face to face. But the people at Varsity that I talked with were terrific, and I'm very satisfied. I have Varsity on my radar if we stumble with a different subject again in the future. I'd recommend to people, and I already did to a couple of people.

I was looking to hire an SAT tutor for my daughter. I spoke with the Varsity salesperson and was given all kinds of promises. Because my daughter is a student at a boarding school where the average SAT is 1430, she needed to do exceptionally well to stand out from her peers, especially as most of the kids apply to the same colleges. I explained that she only needed help with Math, but it had to be someone who scored an 800 or very close to that, since her target is 1500. The salesperson assured me he would find the best tutor - one that would be an Ivy League graduate. He said it over and over. Guaranteed it every way he could.

I was obviously too trusting and took him at his word. After taking all my money up front ($900), he then assigned a tutor. Varsity chose an *undergrad* at a regular state school - who wasn't even a math major. This might be ok for many, but the issue I had is that the salesperson outright LIED to me. I had to call and talk to several people (they would not put me through to him), so they assigned another tutor. This time, we got a student who had finished one semester at an Ivy, but was "taking some time off". She wasn't even a sophomore!

Despite the tutor profiles on the Varsity website and the option to request each one directly, that is nothing but false advertising. One of the women at Varsity actually admitted to it. She said to just disregard it! We tried the second tutor because it was obvious we wouldn't get better. Although this person was a math expert, she had poor communication skills so was not very effective. Not only that, it was very difficult to get a hold of her, and then she just ignored my emails. I also found out that the tutor was not familiar with teaching the SAT. She had no idea how many math sections were on the test, how many problems, pacing, etc.

I had to call Varsity again to request a third tutor. They sent me another student from a state school, but at least this one had actually graduated from college. Since the weeks to prep for the test were dwindling, we had to go with this one. He was passable, but failed to adhere to my request that he assign my daughter practice material between the weekly sessions. I told him verbally and via email/text. He was also hard to get a hold of and would not respond to some of my communications.

This pattern persisted over several weeks, but it got worse. He failed to schedule sessions with my daughter even though we had explicitly agreed to a schedule prior to working with him. We stuck with him at that point because we knew we couldn't get better. Although this tutor had actually graduated from college, he was only a few years out so was not a seasoned tutor by any regard. Please note that Varsity was charging $75 per hour for these kids they were sending our way. Oh, they also assigned us a 4th tutor out of the blue. She called and couldn't understand that we already had someone. The straw that broke the camel's back is that the tutor STOOD MY DAUGHTER UP THE NIGHT BEFORE HER SAT. They were supposed to have a final review session. He ignored her calls and texts and mine as well.

If I wasn't so naive and hadn't already paid the $900, I would have fired Varsity before my daughter even started her sessions because of the unethical way they manage their business. Talk about bait and switch! I dearly regret that I didn't pay the extra $20 an hour to work with a company whose tutors are full-time employees who get benefits - meaning accountability. The tutors were also adults with graduate degrees. This was definitely a case of "You get what you pay for." I suffered from hiring Varsity and don't want you to as well. Trust me, it would be a disservice to your child.

She didn’t do great on her SAT and she decided she wanted to take the ACT. For the ACT, the tutor came about maybe six or seven times, either weekly or sometimes we had to skip a little. And communication was a combination of the app, email, phone, and text. She was taught how to crack the test. And her test scores were incredible. And even though she was moving along with the ACT, when she took the SAT again, she said everything she learned on the ACT tutoring was able to transfer. So, she did amazing on both tests.

I've already got two friends who are now using the same tutor from us. I've told other people that they have to use this service, it's the best because there's flexibility and if you don't like the vibe or you're not getting along well with one tutor, they'll give you another one. If you have extra hours left over, you could use it for subject tutoring or for essay writing, and that the cost actually worked out to be better than the local tutors. And you can put it on your credit card. When I first signed up, I used eBay also. I've recommended it multiple times and posted about it too.

The second tutor, Rebekah, is wonderful. She's very bright, creative and as my 11-year old grandson said that she knows how to explain things so a kid can understand. From the minute she walks in the door, she has a really good energy. We have a study here at the house and I hear her and my grandson. She's very up and positive. She is a natural teacher and makes it fun. Every lesson, she writes out what they're doing as they go, and at the end, shows us what they did and the things where he could work on. He just adores her and they have names for each other.

She really gets him and spends way more time than she is supposed to. She'll stay and visit and tell us how it'd go on or whatever she needs to do. As a matter of fact, we just bought 30 more sessions with her. She is teaching him how to learn and to read the questions first when he takes a test over a paragraph. She gives a lot of little tips, like using a straight edge to put under the lines where he's reading, because he has attention deficit and it's really easy for him to lose his place. She just gives him a lot of tips on how to organize his math, how to use extra paper and make it neat. To be able to know how to do it is one thing, but to teach an 11-year old is another. We've had an excellent experience with Varsity Tutors and since we had gotten Rebekah, it had been all-around positive.

I love that it was a one-on-one and I love the online platform where they can do the work on the screen and the tutor can see where he's making his mistake. Prior to Varsity Tutors the highest he had scored on the Math was a 28. He just took the test in April and he got a 31 so his Math score went up three points which is 100% correlated to Varsity Tutors. We had used Huntington before for the same exact ACT Prep. We tried everything, including working on his own and a local tutor, but Varsity Tutors was phenomenal and I will never recommend anything else. I would tell my friends that it is the way to go. Originally, it's gonna be expensive and it is $1,500 but it's not anymore less expensive than with what's out there. We are extremely happy with them.

The process is not just the old-fashioned two plus two equals four. Usually it's modern day like video games. If my son is into Minecraft, the tutor relates that to what he's learning and the fun computer games that are actually teaching him stuff. The tutor also helps with my son's assignments. I'd tell friends to go for Varsity Tutors. I have had nothing but positive experiences.

We had two tutors and we tried one through the online platform. He just graduated from Tulane and he was super nice, personable and was like having a boy band tutor. The platform that they used online was very similar to Skype and it was really easy, so that worked out well. My son graduated and was traveling after graduation. And the Summer course my son was taking ended, so when the school started, I wanted to try the in-person that comes to our home to see if that would make a difference and start the school year with the Math class that he had going into Geometry.

I wanted to see how having someone in our home works and if it was a difference. This tutor has been tutoring for about 20 years. She has six kids and she gets kids. I usually sit down at my computer and I hear them. My son gets her and he'll push her and she pushes back. It's really cute. She's not a mommy but not a scary teacher. She treats him like a high schooler, not a little kid.

It was a good experience and we actually just got our younger son, an 8th grader, put in a high school favorites class this year, and she also did that. No one really complains that it's tutor time. They would rather play the video games but my son goes, "Okay, fine. I'll be right down," which is nice. It's a good thing and it’s cool. I like Varsity Tutors’ professionalism and their fees are fairly comparable to others. Their follow-up is so cool. They are not pushing to make new sales. The teacher has been extremely flexible and the self-flexibility has been really appreciated as well. I would tell others to absolutely try Varsity Tutors because both in-house and online will help the students and they would get the subjects. Varsity Tutors understand and they can help the students learn the way they need to learn.

My son’s grades always soared. It went up a lot of percentage points because his tutoring upfront worked. My son was at a D, it was 69 percent and after the second session, my son was able to reach a test and it went to 76 percent and up from there. That was pretty exceptional. My son always gets someone frustrated but the tutor was extremely patient. I would communicate through text message and Varsity Tutors were really responsive. We really like Jean, the tutor, a lot. My son really liked him. It was more one on one with my son but we have the recordings that they can review. It was really beneficial. For instance, my son would read some of the French items and the tutor would correct him and tell himh how it should be said. And they ended up going over the fundamentals again.

If you need help and you need someone online teaching that is gonna be patient, I would highly recommend Varsity Tutors. Anyone who struggles with ADHD and needs one-on-one teaching, I would highly recommend Varsity Tutors because of the knowledge. I love how you tell them the interest of the person that’s getting tutored and they match him with the tutor that fits. They deal with people that are all over the nation and the world and depending on where their location is, the timing can get messed up sometimes or there isn’t enough connection but they’re very thorough and they work with you at a convenient time.

Original Review: April 14, 2018

I have used Varsity Tutors for many years for my son, first as he tried community college for a year and then again, as he successfully graduated from trade school this month. They always push big packages with lots of hours, calling with specials, etc. In order to make sure that I had enough to keep his tutoring current, I purchased a mid sized package in Oct. As his schooling was coming to an end, I realized that he would not need all the hours. I have 7.9 hours left. I called to get the money refunded to my credit card (as it had been several years ago when he decided to leave community college). I was surprised to find out that I could not get my money back. I am only allowed to use other Varsity services.

Well, I do not need any other services. My son has his resume completed and is in the process of being hired. I have no other family members to "gift" these hours to. No one needs to learn a language. This is a lot of money that my son and I need for my medical expenses, household expenses, and even clothing for my son's new career. If they had told me (as I told them that he would be graduating in 2018) that I could not get reimbursed, I would have ordered smaller packages. Not once was this issue brought up when on the phone with the salesman. That I may be in jeopardy of having too many hours that could not be refunded.

I am deeply disappointed that I am losing $400 that I truly need. I am hoping that someone further up the line contacts me and rectifies this situation. If not, be aware of this and do not buy the big packages if you think for one minute you may not be able to use the hours. I asked to be contacted and was told I would be contacted shortly. I was not. I am truly disappointed as I called again to leave another message for resolution to this.

At this point it's clear it was a total waste of money and I called and asked for a refund. However, they are unable to give me a refund even after the wasted hours and two useless tutors. I had to pay for an actual tutor just to help me understand what was going on. Now that I have no need for a tutor because the semester is over and I was unable to be helped, I'm stuck with hours that I don't want to use with this service.

Samantha offered to find me a solution in a week's time after the second fiasco, she came through for me big time. She recommended a French student living in New York. He understood perfectly well what I wanted to accomplish, helped me have confidence when speaking and taught me a lot. I can honestly say I couldn't have been happier with the result. I came back from France a week ago, I was able to communicate with everyone without feeling insecure about my grammar or pronunciation... I met with business partners and visited all the tourist attractions. I am very happy with the outcome, it was money well spent.

For the next several weeks, our daughter met with her tutor, performing practice tests, and reviewing incorrect answers. She also worked and studied on her own, based on input from her tutor. While the interaction with the tutor was ‘ok’, we paid for the results. Again, these objectives were achievable according to Varsity Tutors. Bottom line: our daughter scored exactly the same on both exams. No improvement. We were looking for a reasonable improvement, and what we got was a lot of stress and a big disappointment for our daughter, who put forth an enormous amount of time. Personally, I believe all of these types of companies overstate their ability in terms of college entrance exams. We won’t use this type of service for our younger child, and I would caution people to lower their expectations.

My daughter was able to improve her grades and catch up on her assignments. She gained a better understanding of concepts because she had that one-on-one experience. They’re efficient, and their hours are flexible. The tutor I had worked around my daughter’s schedule. For example, we needed more time, so we just added more time. We wanted to also increase how much tutoring she got a week and they accommodated all that. I would highly recommend Varsity Tutors for anyone who’s having trouble. I can only speak about Math though, because that’s what we took, and I’ve seen that it helped my daughter a lot. But I know they do other subjects.

Original Review: March 9, 2018

My experience with Varsity Tutors was TERRIBLE! I was looking for a tutor for my son. During 3-4 months I changed 5 tutors. All 5 tutors were just random people from the street that had no idea how to do tutoring. The last tutor just send me a text message saying that he cannot come anymore just 30 minutes before the scheduled class. I called the agency and asked my money back. Joel (the manager) asked me to give them another try. I tried 3 more times. All the times I was calling them they were asking for the last try.

Finally when I called them again and asked for money back as they advertise on the website, the response was that they cannot return the money because I am out of the 30 days window period. BIG LIARS!!! Would never use them again. From the package that I bought for 1,600$ I only used around 400$. They are saying no refund is possible for the rest of the money (that is more than $1000). If you do not want to put more than 1000$ in the garbage do not use them!!!

It was easy for me to let my daughter, Katie, deal and schedule with her tutors. I have listened in a couple of times and her tutors were very encouraging. They made her think about things. She's also always so relieved and happy when she gets off the phone with them. Math is her best subject and it's the subject that we needed the tutoring in. The bad part was she had a very difficult cantankerous teacher and it appeared to be that her goal was to make the student fail. So, Katie, would go online and meet with her tutor, then she’d understand everything and have every concept. Her learning skills improved greatly because she knew she was understanding her lessons and her confidence level was good. But the next time she had class, it was like there was nothing she could do that was right even though she knew her lessons.

We had an incident where Katie dropped the class not because of varsity, but because of the teacher. She made it so incredibly difficult for her and the stress level was beyond reality. So, Katie decided to take the class next year. But she didn’t realize and her counselor didn’t advise her that when she did this, Katie became ineligible and in order for her cheer team to be eligible for any of the awards that they'd win or to go to Nationals, Katie had to learn the rest of the semester plus review a whole semester's worth of work in seven days. When I called Varsity Tutors about the whole situation, they said they were on it and they worked with Katie. However much she needed, they were there. And the night before her final exam that she had to take, the second tutor that we had that was out at Colorado Springs told Katie that they'd get on it at 6:30 and she'd stay on with her until she was comfortable and could go take that test.

I've told many of my friends about Varsity Tutors. I told them that if they want the most amazing tutoring experience, they should go with Varsity Tutors. They work with the kids in terms of schedules because most kids have very busy schedules. They also make sure that the kids understand the lessons and if their child is not clicking with one tutor, then they'd find somebody else. The upfront price was a sticker shock, but when you break it down, it's either the same price as or cheaper than meeting with another tutor in person. I've also told my friends about that, too, to prepare them. When you're going to spend $1,000 you need a little preparation. A lot of people have taken Varsity's number from me and either their child went right through it or they did something different, but I know they haven't gone with another tutoring system.

The tutors at Varsity Tutors are all very, very highly qualified. You just have to explain to them the situation you're in and then they match you. We had great success with who they matched us with. They also offer a system for switching if you're not really comfortable with whoever you get matched with and it wouldn't be a criticism of anybody, but we never had a need to use it. They're great about scheduling too. Their scheduling is easier than with an in-person tutor because you can choose the last minute. One week you might not even talk to the tutor and then the next week, you might want three sessions and that usually worked out great. I'd tell my friends not to let the facts online hold them back. They should investigate Varsity Tutors right away because they have people on every subject that are caring and are very capable of helping students raise their grades. It's been a big benefit to our household.

A lot of things happened in the middle of that whole experience. Right after having most of the tutoring, my child was to take the test but she was not mentally in the place for that. It was her first time to take that test as an over-arching and it's not for a specific subject. The tutor gave her strategies and tips on each section and works with her to explain if she didn't get an answer correctly, what the correct way to approach the problem would've been and what the answer should have been.

We had a really positive experience with them. We might actually use the tutor again for a couple of sessions. My child has taken it once then got two-points higher the second time. But she's still two points lower than what she was usually getting on the practice test with the tutor. I'd definitely recommend using Varsity. It's a great way to not waste your child's time going over a lot of things that they already are very well versed in. In that way, you can concentrate on the areas that your child needs help in before the test.

I used them for LSAT tutoring, so it was specific to learning the test. But I also used them for help with writing an essay and my essay tutor was so incredibly helpful. I definitely thought about writing differently even after just a few sessions with her when she really helped structure my unstructured essay. So, that was a good experience as well. Varsity Tutors' service is more personalized and tailored to you in making sure that your personal needs are being met. They have great customer service and employees. Everyone was super lovely. I talked to a lot of competitors and even Kaplan-like companies that have structured classes and Varsity was better than all of them.

We had another tutor all summer and he was really good. The kids liked him and he was very approachable for them. He tried to go to their level and engaged them with things that they were interested in, and he tried to make the learning fun. In the summer, we didn't have an earlier working time, so he had more liberty. The tutor that we have now is really good. She's nice, very patient with the kids, and very flexible. If either she or the kids needed to change tutoring days, we always worked that out well. Also, if the kids needed extra help for a test that was coming up, she made herself available.

The platform with the online option that Varsity uses works well and it's nice. Our current tutor is in Georgia and we're in Chicago. The tutor has the same books that my kids use for their classes, so the material is right there for them, and there's also a way to take pictures of problems. Kids these days are very computer-savvy and they're used to computerized things. We had a couple of problems with connectivity, but we got someone to help, so that was good. It interrupted the session a little bit, but the Varsity people were very quick to respond and find a fix, which was great. The most important thing is to make sure that my kids get a good quality tutor, who is a good person that has good teaching skills, and not someone who just wants to make extra money. Online tutoring is a good option for kids.

I'll tell friends that if they're looking for a tutoring system that works, they might try Varsity Tutors out. For instance, my son decides he needs a tutor tonight. They have instant tutoring where you just try your luck and you get someone who is in your particular course. In other situations where instead of going that direction, my son's actual tutor that’s been assigned to him, and oftentimes they’ll be so flexible and they will fit him in. A lot of people set dates, but that’s not what worked for my son. He only needs the tutor when he needs the tutor, and yet the tutor from Varsity Tutors has been very knowledgeable. Also, if he didn’t like a particular tutor, they would readily get him a new one. They've been the most accommodating. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I'll have the grandchildren use them. I’ve recommended them to everyone I know.

Varsity Tutors looked good on the website so I connected with them and they called me. I talked about what kind of tutoring was needed and it took them a couple of days but they connected him with a woman who was a graduate student in Political Science International Relations. It was a good fit because she was very chatty and she liked games. Her encouragement and the way she worked with him gave him a lot more self-confidence than he had going into it. When you combine anxiety with lack of confidence, that makes it even harder but she was able to keep calm and work with him until he really understood it and until he could do it. She was part tutor, part therapist so it was really nice. I’m not sure she realized what a big impact she had on him but I can’t imagine that he would have done as well as he did without her help. He got a B+ for the course and then A- on his last paper which was a big paper, 45% of his grade.

My son even miscalculated when the paper was due. He thought it was due a week from the day it was due but it was actually due the Tuesday after Thanksgiving break. People go home for Thanksgiving and so did his tutor. But she was really helpful. They were able to meet a couple hours over the holiday weekend and she kept giving him support either over the phone or through the shared document on Google Drive. He got a lot out of her and the proof is in the pudding. He was even nervous about looking at his grade but he got an A- on the paper.

Also, I bought extra hours before the paper was due knowing that he would need some more support. But he didn’t use them all and I didn’t realize there was a deadline for getting my money back. Still, they gave me my money back for the hours he didn’t use and I was happy with that. That was very nice of them. Varsity Tutors wasn't cheap but at that point, I felt, "Whatever it takes." And it was worth the money. I would definitely recommend it.

Also, being a working parent, for me to get my daughter somewhere was going to be very hard so doing the virtual tutoring was great. Plus, we got access to someone who we may have not been able to have access to because he was out of state. So we got someone with the specialty no matter where he was located. I talked with the tutor briefly before my daughter's first session on what he was going to do and how to keep her engaged. We did tutoring at 6:30 at night. That’s when we got home and she’s probably not the most attentive at that time but he did a really good job of keeping her engaged. He also helps her break down things in reading, which was where she was struggling. Working with Varsity Tutors was a good experience for us and we'd probably do it again when we need some tutoring.

Lita loved her tutors. She was hoping to be able to get the first one that she had again this year but wasn’t able to work that out. But she got another great tutor and she got one working with SAT prep and he is absolutely beyond amazing. In fact, this semester, he’s tutoring her with her math. All of the tutors have always made her feel so comfortable and they’re so encouraging. She has used three different tutors there so far and she always had a really great experience with all of them. They’re good teachers and they obviously know their job. They know how to relate with her and to help her, giving the extra time. She’s able to understand the material a lot better after working with them. They figure out what kind of things work for her and go with that especially this one for math. She actually said to me, “I think I learned more from two hours with him than I learned in a whole semester. It was just great.” Otherwise we wouldn’t keep doing this.

She definitely does better with working with them. The options are so great. Aside from the regular tutoring sessions, there’s the instant tutoring option where she can get on there and get with someone if she needs some quick help so it’s really beneficial. Iit’s really helping her confidence with her classes. And so we’re very happy. They’ve got really great tutors who identify well with their students. They’re enthusiastic and very positive, and we’re definitely seeing the results with her grades improving.

Brenda broke down every step and went through all the stuff that I needed. She looked at it, reviewed it, and then gave me suggestions, which was really helpful. And it helped the tutoring session go by very smoothly. The price was a little steep and a bigger packet would be good. I don't realize how fast I go through the nine-hour session and I saw myself using more of those than I thought I would use. Other than that, Varsity Tutors has been very helpful. I like how they were able to switch out some more different tutors. I like the time that the tutors are available, too. They are really on time and have everything prepared. Moreover, I'm still able to use what the tutor provided me later on down the line.

If there was one thing that would be a barrier to Varsity Tutors, it would be that they’re very expensive. But they have a national database and they were able to find experts in the area that could provide a service that we were not able to find locally. It was something we really needed. My daughter found Varsity Tutors to be on the same level as the resources available on campus to students at the university. But the university didn’t offer tutoring in the specialized content area that she needed.

My daughter had struggled in the course this last time and we weren’t sure if she was going to be successful. When we ran out of tutoring sessions, I called Varsity Tutors. I only needed one more session to finish the semester and they shared with me how expensive it was. I told the rep it was cost-prohibitive and they gave it to us complimentary. They really extended themselves and went above and beyond. I really appreciated that expression of support for her. Aside from that, I have also always found the representatives of the organization to be very helpful and professional. I’m also a university professor and I’m glad that I know about the resource because it’s also something that I wouldn’t have to pay to refer to my students if they didn’t get the support they needed on campus. I would definitely consider using Varsity Tutors again, too.

We used Varsity Tutors last summer, and the simple fact of keeping my son engaged in that type of thought process instead of taking the whole summer off was a huge help. It definitely has carried him through the current school year and allowed him to practice those mechanisms in class. Additionally, Varsity Tutors has a good variety of packages that we could go with, and there was the ability to purchase by hours. They have larger discounts with larger number of hours that we would purchase. And then during times when they have failed on those hours, there's 15% off for returning users, which was nice too. It's not just a set price, and you don't get any breaks.

As long as you are very clear in what it is that you are trying to accomplish with the tutor, Varsity Tutors has a very large variety of tutors to select from, and so they're able to customize pretty well. Obviously, you never know until you put two people together if they're going to match, but as far as what we're looking for in expertise, they did a great job of matching up a tutor with my son.

Joseph prepared my son well for high school entrance exams that he was going to be taking. He had an extensive list of vocabulary words that he should know and he had a lot of good shortcuts and studying tricks. Varsity Tutors has definitely helped my son. He's a better student for it. I would tell others about them and that they help improve the kids' scores and learning process. But they're just very expensive. I would have appreciated if we had a discount of some kind when we added more hours, like more of customer loyalty.

I talked to my son afterwards and he said what he really learned was how to take the ACTs. They really focused on the English component of it. Since he was stronger on the Math side, they focused more on where he needed to improve. It went really well and it definitely improved his ACT. He is going to MIT now and I'm very proud. It works really well since the lessons are individualized to the student. My niece is a senior this year and used Varsity Tutors based on my recommendation. She was able to get into the college she wanted. I would highly recommend Varsity Tutors.

When I called up the offices, they were very good listeners. They were very keen and attentive to what I wanted. But they are also talking to everybody so clients have to state who they are and what they want. There are a lot of different people with a lot of different needs and the match is very random so clients should not settle for the first two or three people they get. Clients can also decide if they want online or in-person tutoring. I originally did not want online, but in the end that worked better for me because there was a bigger pool of tutors out there and it was actually easier.

In the end, I was very specific about my needs and then it matched up. It definitely takes advocacy on your part, which is normal. Nobody's going to come in knowing what goes with your needs. I got really lucky and Jennifer has been so incredible in the last two years. I need help with writing for social work school, and she guides me, gives me instructions and helps me with an outline. I go back and do the work, then we get back together and she edits my papers. It's been a great experience and the service is reasonably priced too.

The math tutor we had last year came back this week and he'll come back again after this. My daughter was really sick, so he is helping me get her back up to speed on some stuff. In addition, I just recently signed up for SAT prep. That starts tonight with a new tutor. As much as she does not want to deal with schoolwork, once school is out, it really calms her down when she's preparing for a test. She struggled in the middle of the semester last spring, but she ended up with an A- and got a perfect score until her final exam. If they sent a tutor that is not right for you, then you don't need to hesitate to call and ask for someone different. They would try to accommodate you. Working with them has been productive.

Original Review: Dec. 21, 2017

Tutors are really seem like fraud guys, I think the workers should be much more careful whom they are allowing to teach on this website. The guy I took a course said me that he will send the answers directly for my HW after the session. His name is "Reda **", but he did not. I spent about $150 just futile, so sad. :((( Hate fraud people and things, but they are happy with that. :(

However, my teacher wasn’t very good at explaining concepts and going through reactions. He helped me step by step and then just made sure that I have the main idea of what was actually going on, and why we were doing what we were doing, so that really helped in that area. Also, for college students, sometimes they’re on a budget and the service is kind of expensive, but it is a one-on-one tutoring whenever you’re available.

Varsity Tutors pairs you with tutors that are excelling in the areas you need help in and tutors that also have like interests that they learn in the same manner that you do. So, that's definitely a big plus. If I ever need to go back to school for something, I'd totally use them as a tool for me to be able to use and study and regain some knowledge.

I was studying for the GRE and I needed help. My tutor was great. He was very kind and I really enjoyed working with him. He is very patient, explained things to me easily and broke things down for me so that I could understand it. If I wasn't getting it, he would be able to explain it to me in a different way so that I could understand it. Plus, he wouldn't let me give up on myself. Sometimes I would say that I just don't get something. He'd tell me encouragingly that I'm almost there and just have to get through one more step.

I was studying for the GRE on my own prior to contacting Varsity Tutors. I was having such a hard time with the Math portion and my practice test scores were super low. After working with them, my test scores came up significantly. I would not have been that successful on that test if I had not gotten a tutor for it. Plus, I feel like I wouldn't have gotten into grad school if I didn't do as well as I did. I definitely attribute a lot of my success to my tutor.

I'd recommend giving them a call if you are struggling and need help or if you're looking to improve on something. They'll work with you. They have great payment plans and options. You don't have to get a whole ton of hours if you don't need them. Plus, you can add on hours if you underestimated the amount you needed. It's a really great investment for your future.

Varsity Tutors worked out really well for me. I always tell the people here, when I’m recommending Varsity, not to get turned off by the online thing. I’d tell them to jump on it and it’s like the tutor’s in the room with you which is not bad. I took Physics and Math and I personally vouch for that, and any of the other subjects would be just as good.

Somebody offered us a scholarship this year so he has a new tutor, Sarah, since Lucas couldn’t do it anymore. Though he liked her too, it was different with her because of his male bond with Lucas. But my son definitely still likes going, and there are times he wants to talk to Sarah about problems. Now that he's in high school, things are harder. Knowing that he needs more help, I have decided to focus the scholarship on him.

My daughter had missed a lot of school because she has been in the hospital. She became diabetic and was just completely lost. Varsity Tutors also found a tutor for her, Shiloh, and she was a special education teacher. She was able to work with her and brought her back to where she needed to be. Now she's doing fine and this year, she hasn't had any problems.

In all these, I appreciate Varsity Tutors. Their staff is very good and very easy to work with. The best thing about them is when I had to cancel, they didn’t give me any problems with it. I always tell people that. Overall, Varsity Tutors is a great investment depending on what your needs are. I would definitely encourage friends to do it. We were just so blessed to get the scholarship. If I ever had extra money, I would put somebody else on scholarship because my kids have grown so much, not just academically but personally, because each tutor from Varsity has been able to reach them in a different way.

My son thought both tutors were very good, too. The tutor he had in St. Louis was stronger with Reading and Science and then the one out here more so with Math, and it was a great balance. Varsity Tutors is a great company and I would recommend them highly. They prepared my son well for the ACT so I was very happy with the service and it was well worth the investment.

It’s a great program. I like how at the end, we can rate our tutors and how anyone’s available any time of the day too, even late at night or super early in the morning. I play volleyball usually, so I don’t have much time. When I do, they’re able to work around my schedule and be available when I am, which is very nice. They read your paper and give you good responses right away, in a very good time frame.

We had two kinds of basic needs, one was for English where my son really needed to learn and be able to create new skill sets. He had some challenges with essay writing so I went into detail about being able to explain what we were looking for and they matched us with the perfect tutor for my son. He worked last year with Ken, his tutor, and this year, my son is getting the best English grades he’s ever gotten. So that worked well. We also needed Varsity Tutors to get the best out of my son in Calculus, a subject he loves. We wanted to improve his knowledge of calculus for college prep and he's had two great tutors that have been doing a great job over the last year and this year in that regard.

My son is a really smart kid, kind of STEM-focused so it’s all about motivation and even though these were two very different subjects and two very different tutors, both were able to meet him and get him motivated. Ken had a much tougher job because English was my son’s least favorite subject. But he did a fabulous job so when my son started to need some more help in AP calculus this semester, he asked me to call Varsity Tutors again. It was good all the way around and we haven’t had a bad experience at all in any regard so we kept us using them.

We also used another tutoring program but there’s teaching someone when you’re beside them and there’s teaching the student to not need you and be able to go on. That’s the difference in our experience with Varsity Tutors and they would be a value to others as well. And from a results perspective, my son got a 34 on his ACT which we are really pleased with. That is a good score in large part because of the investment we made with Varsity Tutors. He also got accepted to his number one college choice.

Varsity Tutors provided excellent service from the receptionist to the tutors. I had a great and wonderful experience with them. I even got an A on my Statistics class. But I suggest they expand or offer as an add-on in the future, a doctoral area for students who are looking for guidance. The area would have someone who is knowledgeable of APA style and you could give them the topic and they would be able to supply you with the articles that's related to your topic, because that helps a great deal with the literature review section of the dissertation. Other than that, I would tell a friend that Varsity Tutors is one of the best options that I’ve found because they offer what you need. Also, technology wise, they're very up-to-date and the tools that I used were user friendly.

Original Review: Nov. 21, 2017

I am a college student who needed help with only one single subject: Set theory, which is advanced math class. The person who initially sold me the hours to me was very reassuring that they had flexible payment plans and refund policy. They were the only two reasons I decided to give online tutoring a shot. I paid my payments in two separate payments. After making the first payment, I met with a tutor who was not qualified to teach my subject (not to mention that she first contacted me via phone call around 10 pm). The tutor referred to her husband as main source of her knowledge, which was very unprofessional. Also, we spent nearly 20 minutes of 90-minute session simply talking about how technology sucks in online tutoring.

Although I was not pleased with the tutor, I did not leave a bad review because she was trying to help and not everyone is perfect. Then, I had to a get a new debit card and Varsity Tutors called me every day, asking for me to make the payment. I wasn't happy with their service, but I wanted to keep them as my safety net in case I couldn't' find any in-person tutor. So, I made the mistake of making my second half of my payment. Later, I found a great tutor that is qualified and way cheaper than Varsity Tutors. However, because it took me roughly 15 days more to found the right tutor for me, they won't make any refund for my unused 7.5 hours, which is about $400. Had I known that I could not get my money back, I wouldn't have made the second payment.

It is obvious that I simply didn't know, and they are holding their "unbreakable" policy (which had to be signed in order for me to meet my "expert tutor") against me to not make the refund. The person I spoke to regarding this issue told me that if I were only a day late, she could have worked with me, but since I'm more than a day late, she cannot. If you are willing to work for a student, you should afford more than a day. I feel like as customer I wasn't heard nor helped. I understand that policies exist, so I asked if I could only get half of it refunded, and the answer I got was "Sorry, there is NO way we can break the policy." But making a refund after a day late is also breaking the policy. Varsity Tutors is working with and for students. They need to know who their customers are. They can't take advantage of that and just shove policies into our faces.

This doesn't make sense to me -- if I'm not using someone who lives in New York, why should I pay more than someone in another area? So I asked about the variation in price for New York vs other markets for virtual tutoring, but the nice sales rep wouldn't answer me and told me I was being aggressive and that Virtual Tutoring would have to hang up. As they did. Not sure if I need a math teacher to understand why comparative pricing is not offered to the consumer. Is it possible the Sales Rep was just ignorant and got scared? Why would pricing for a Virtual Service be Market Based? I think I need an econ tutor now.

Updated on 12/06/2017: Regarding my low rating of Varsity Tutors: (here is a report on the problem I originally identified). Varsity Tutoring (VT) did have a very pleasant company representative call me back, and apologized for two of their agents hanging up on me. She offered me a company credit, which I have not, to my knowledge, received. She appeared to sympathize with my complaints, listed below, and promised to bring them up to management, she also provided me with information on what she believed was the maximum difference in prices per hour across the country, but did not provide any written materials to back that up.

After discussion with her, we seemed to agree that the company might be maintaining an annoying policy of making prices available only after you give your zip code on a false premise... And providing more information to potential customers and sales agents would make the company much more attractive to potential customers. The secrecy seems counter-productive.

Consumer Affairs contacted me to ask if my complaints had been resolved. They have not because, at least to my knowledge Varsity Tutors continues to: a) charge their customers a higher rate for an online service with identical costs, which is an unfair and distasteful practice, b) insult their customers by not making their pricing information transparent and easily available and understandable, c) put strain on their sales agents/telephone operators by not providing them with answers on comparison pricing which leads them to become rude when asked for comparative pricing information. Thus making for an extremely unpleasant customer experience. And that brings my review up to date.

My son loves to go to the tutor and he’s getting more confident in his learning. The other day, he did really well on his spelling test and the first words out of his mouth were, “I can’t wait to tell my tutor.” He’s happy and he’s interested in learning, so that makes me happy too. I would highly recommend friends to Varsity Tutors. I would tell them about my experience and that they should call and ask what Varsity Tutors has to offer and see if they can help them out as much as Varsity Tutors has helped me out. Varsity Tutors is amazing and they seemed to help my child. Everything seems to be working great the way it should be and I will continue to stay with Varsity Tutors.

Varsity Tutors helped and reassigned me to a different tutor, and that one worked great. This new tutor was reliable and she showed up when she said she was going to. She was very knowledgeable on the subject and she gave me lots of tips on how to remember things. It was all online and we video chatted and had phone calls, and this was a year ago. If friends ask me about Varsity Tutors, I would tell them to make sure they ask first specifically what they need so they get placed with the right tutor for them, and if it doesn’t work out, they should ask Varsity Tutors for a new one.

Varsity Tutors is definitely worth the time and the money. I found Varsity Tutors to be very receptive to what we were looking for and once they knew, the next match was perfect. I only wish my boys could have used the rest of the hours that we had left because from a price point, their time would have been a better situation for us. We used Varsity Tutors for a very short experience and it was excellent. We were very pleased.

Original Review: Nov. 6, 2017

The tutor assigned to me talked me into dropping the class. This was during the 2nd session which he was a half an hour late for. He spent 40 minutes describing to me why he couldn't help me. They refused to give me a refund.

I am upgrading their rating from 1 star to 4 for now and I am hoping to increase it to 5 stars once we have successfully completed a semester's worth of tutoring. Based on my interactions with Kelli I am confident that they will achieve a 5 star rating from me in the very near future.

Original Review: Nov. 1, 2017

My wife signed our son up with this company and we pre-paid for 9 sessions with a tutor for our college age son. Upon signing up it took several days to have a tutor contact my son and once the tutor contacted him she advised him she was not qualified to tutor him with his particular subject. The second tutor assigned cancelled the first scheduled session due to a "family emergency" and my son never heard back from the tutor. Multiple calls to the tutor and the company by both my son and us have not been returned. Several weeks have gone by, midterms are upon us and no response from the company. Will file a dispute with my bank in attempt to get our funds back. DO NOT hire this company!

Original Review: Oct. 27, 2017

We were so disappointed with Varsity Tutors for ACT tutoring. Varsity Tutor do not have a process in place to check to make sure the student is learning the material. My daughter was taking the review test online before her sessions and was getting better scores but instead of learning and understanding the material, she was remembering the questions. It was not until she took an actual ACT and did not improve her score that we realized this. It was a waste of time and a lot of money. The local office managers tried to help by replacing the tutor but the second tutor did not work out either, she kept cancelling and rescheduling at the last minute.

I finally gave up and hired a local tutor where we say my daughter score improve significantly. I wasted almost $2,000, 8 months of study time and many phone calls on this company. When we had unused hours I received a call from sales agent inquiring about using them (and purchasing more). I told her our frustration. She told me someone would contact me about their "money back guarantee" but no one ever contacted me. They are excellent salespeople, don't get fooled into buying from them.

When I pay that much money, I expect choices, good customer treatment and guarantees of the value that the service will bring. I would not even think of calling back because the lady I spoke to on the phone obviously had no customer handling skills and should never have been working in a call center if she was Deputy Director of anything. Her tone and choice of words were ridiculous!!! Will never recommend or even think of spending my hard earned money there. Big thumbs down.

I believe I was misled about the apparent top rated program. My two daughters worked through the summer to get ready for this test. Even the day before the test one of my daughters again waited for this tutor to call and he never did. I have been in law enforcement for over 25 years and work at the Federal Court and have never seen such a program like this. I can see going up a point on the ACT but to DROP 2 POINTS come on now. I have 6 hours left and I know I will not see a refund because after I complained they STOPPED calling, imagine that. VERY DISAPPOINTED.

Original Review: Sept. 15, 2017

I paid for a package of SAT tutoring hours for my daughter. She began with one tutor who was pretty useless, so asked to change to another one. The other tutor was a bit more knowledgeable but very unreliable, constantly changed and cancelled appointment dates - to the point where it was simply not possible to use the hours that we had paid for.

The company then contacted us 3 days before she was scheduled to take the SAT, to say that her current tutor was no longer available but they could assign a new one. I contacted them explaining that was no longer possible with such little time remaining before the SAT, and asked them to refund the money paid for hours that we were unable to use because of the tutor's flakiness. The person I spoke to, named Andrea, flat-out refused, saying that the contractual terms stipulate no refunds of unused hours. They of course had never shown me these terms, because the entire sign-up transaction was conducted over the phone. I asked to speak to a manager, and Andrea promised that the manager would call me back the next day - that was more than a week ago, I have heard nothing from them.

That is quite a good scam they have going, taking customers' money and then hiring tutors who they know won't be available. That way they earn pure profit, without needing to pay anyone for services rendered. I will be contacting the Attorney General's Office about this as well, hopefully they will investigate and shut down this sleazebag operation.

There must be another way that the company can proceed to verify information about their applicants without said applicant jeopardizing his/her identity. This needs to be addressed. I brought this to the attention of several operators who worked for the company and all I was told is 'perhaps this is not a good fit.' That is absolutely absurd. I am a super qualified tutor and am a perfect fit to tutor students in mathematics. I think their requirement borders on an illegality.

Original Review: July 27, 2017

I signed my son up for tutoring to prepare for the ACT. The tutor he was assigned to would only be online half of the time. He rearranged his work schedule to be available for tutoring. He would get online and wait. She would not be there half of the time. His ACT score did not improve. I didn't really expect it to based on the inconsistency of tutoring. Now they are refusing to refund my money for the unused portion of hours. I understand that I should be held responsible for the amount of time he used (even though there was no improvement on his scores), but to be forced to pay for unused hours is wrong. After reading through these reviews I see my son was not the only one who had a tutor to be a no show. I should have done better research. I would avoid this company at all costs.

In addition when I talked to someone he kept insisting my needs were being met. When I repeatedly explained that the reason I signed up was for immediate (online) help, he dismissed this completely. I had to ultimately get a tutor through Wyzant. It's been less than 24 hours that I gave them my money and they refuse to reimburse me without going through at least one tutor and their refund policy. Also they don't offer a trial period which is nuts. Stay away. Use Wyzant if you can.

One of my tutors got mad at me whenever I used my calculator even though my class strongly advises us to use a calculator and kept yelling at me whenever he saw me using a calculator, despite the fact that I have dyscalculia, that made me feel even more insecure about math and I canceled that session because I couldn't stop crying that entire day. I complained to customer service. They are provokingly nice however they do not answer your questions. And I've complained about the insensitivity of that tutor and they don't seem to care that their tutors are rude and not that educated. I've gotten a couple answers wrong on my homework because of them and I even had to correct them now and then.

After my horrible experience with Varsity Tutors, I've been asking them for a refund for about a week now. They hung up on me once when I mentioned a refund and then they said my account manager will call me back on that day to discuss refund and it's been a week later and no call. Which is hilarious because when I was interested in their tutoring they were so quick and eager to talk to me but when I asked for a refund they are no help and not as friendly. I honestly think they are procrastinating so 60 days can pass by and then it'll be my responsibility. I will be contacting my credit card company and possibly my local attorney and filling out a consumer complaint form. I am truly disappointed of the results of my experience with Varsity. It was only one session that made me realize this whole thing was a red flag, I wanted a refund right after my first session but of course they don't care as long as they have your money because you have to pay in full.

Original Review: June 23, 2017

I would give this company zero stars if I could. They are eager to have you pay over $900.00 for services they set you up for on the phone & the tutor no shows because she's with another client. They say I signed a contract that I could only get my money back within 30 days after the salesman said my money back was 100% guaranteed. Now I have to take them to small claims court to get my money back.

Original Review: April 27, 2017

I needed a tutor for my 4th grader. I figured this would be easy enough and booked 30 hours with Varsity Tutors. They are eager to have you pay upfront. After a couple of weeks, I was placed with a tutor for 4th-grade basic reading and writing. She canceled our first session and arrived late or canceled the next few. I should have known at that moment. She was a decent tutor but unreliable. She even brought her child along for tutoring which I let go because my son seemed to bond with her. Cancellation after cancellation later I called Varsity Tutors and after a three-week wait was assigned another tutor who had little to no elementary experience. He completed a total of two sessions and "bailed" (as my son says.) The truth is, we live out of the metro area and nobody is willing to do the commute! We stated on day one that we were not interested in the online platform.

I called Varsity Tutors, at that point I had had enough of calling and waiting for them to sort this out. We wanted tutoring services, the service that we had paid in full for in January. We were not looking for AP Physics but a very basic service for a 4th grader. Four weeks later I am still waiting for tutor number three. We have since hired someone local and reliable. I spoke to a director today who told me because I was outside of my 60-day window I could not get any of the money back. Even though we have only completed 13 hours since January and that they wanted me to give them another try. I am not sure how a company fails to fulfill their end of the contract and will call me out on mine. Tutoring services are NOT being provided. Meanwhile, school ends in three week! I would not suggest this company to anybody. I have wasted time and energy and have been left totally frustrated with this experience.

He called back right away, once again disturbing my house prior to 8 am on a Saturday!!! When I said that, "No means no and don't call me again!!!" He proceeded to text me from his personal text and leave me a harassing text!!! He wakes my house up, upsells me and then when I say no he still calls and then sends harassing text. This company is not ok.

Original Review: Feb. 25, 2017

Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed! They essentially place your child's academic future in the hands of a College STUDENT who is not equipped with the experience and perceptiveness to identify your child's area of improvement, nor are they responsible. Here's what happened - judge for yourself... My daughter's ACT score remained the exact same as her "cold test" score. The "tutor" initially met with my daughter in person and then said he had to go back to college, which was out-of-state. As a result, he switched from in-person to online video chat sessions. He also was tutoring a total of 6 students in addition to attending college full time. Due to HIS scheduling conflicts, my daughter's sessions were far apart. I assumed (which I will NEVER do again) that Varsity Tutors would keep their promise to me, which was they manage the Tutors closely.

If they did in fact manage this specific tutor, they would have IMMEDIATELY seen the red flags. The reason I say "Immediately" is because when I called them to complain, they pulled up my daughter's file and told me they could see exactly why my daughter's score did not improve - "It's impossible for a student to retain all of the information when the sessions are scheduled so far apart". Hmmm, well who scheduled them this far apart?? Their tutor did! Not my daughter. And, of course, I assumed this was the process, as I have never used a tutor before - this was our first time. I honestly feel they should have refunded my money (almost $1,000) or assigned free sessions to work with another tutor, but neither was offered. Basically, there was no remediation. My daughter was so disappointed and it ended up impacting academically of course.

Original Review: Dec. 16, 2016

We used VT a couple of years ago and they were fine. We received a call from one of their reps stating that we had a balance of hours to use and to call them if we needed. So, we did. It's been 2 weeks and we're still not connected with a tutor. They offered online tutoring which we did not want, so I called and asked for a manager. I was told I would hear back from someone that day, however it's been 2 days and I haven't heard from anyone. I'm guessing because we have some free hours left that we paid for, that we're at the bottom of the list. Each time we call, we get someone else who gives us the runaround. We are incredibly frustrated and disappointed, and at this point we have requested that our money be refunded. I would not recommend using them to anyone!