Wyzant reviews

Definitely the best tutoring website I have seen and registered with. I do hate the high commission they charge. But they do offer a lot of functions on website.

The site's biggest interest is not for tutor and student to connect with each other, but to make money as a third party agency. As a tutor, my account has been deactivated because a potential student was not willing to pay with a credit card through Wyzant. We still exchanged addresses and scheduled a meeting. Wyzant deactivated my account without notice, even though I have had many students before that and have brought reasonable profit for Wyzant. I would not recommend this website to any one.

I've been working with WyzAnt for a few years now and it has become a really good place to find students and make a fairly steady income. They provide a lot of tools for self-marketing, but they also market the site aggressively, at least through Google...so their site gets a lot of traffic. The vast majority of inquiries I get are from serious students and parents, so my time is not wasted. Also, students submit payment information in advance, but don't get charged until after the lesson, so both the tutors and students are protected. I would highly recommend WyzAnt to anyone looking for a tutor or a tutoring gig.

Prior to beginning Statistics in the fall semester, I was scared to death of the subject. I was enrolled in a level 400 Stats class with no background on the subject. Desperate for a tutor, I did my research and selected Leandro H. Leandro is an extremely patient individual. At times when I was frustrated, he insisted on showing me another way on how to find the solution. He is also encouraging and understanding and therefore makes him a patient individual (borderline Saint) :)

As part of the course, I use JMP for Statistical Analysis. Because of Leandro's background with SAS, he was able to quickly assist with JMP software. Topics that he tutored me in are: Linear regression; probability models; hypothesis testing for proportions; comparing means; ANOVA; Multiple Regression and correlation; and comparing ANOVA models.

The books we used as part of my coursework were as follows:
Richard D. DeVeaux, Paul F. Velleman, and David E. Bock. (2011). Stats: Data and Models. Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc
Alan Agresti and Barbara Finlay. (2009). Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences, fourth edition. Upper
Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc

As a PhD student, I would HIGHLY recommend Leandro for Statistic tutoring.

They have one of the worst business models! The small service that they offer (connecting students with tutors) is not worth the 40% that they take for each time that the student and tutor meets. They create such an awkward business environment when students don't have the payment method on file. They should be the ones forcing students to input payment info rather tutors. I hope this company fails and people stop using it...

They deactivated my account...won't tell me why. I stored my pw and mentioned a recent compromise to my PC. Still nothing from Wyzant. They are now withholding my pay! I work in Special Ed so Wyzant should not be allowed to view correspondence. I am contacting an attorney about my pay and this principle.

Horrible and in fact filed a complaint about them. They do no background check on either students or tutors who must often work with small children and are often high school students and therefore underaged. It is also a vehicle for fraud and financial scams as well as very dubious requests. When I reported what was going on to Wyzant, I was told the site was obviously not for me and nothing was done. In fact, they took me off the site unbeknownst to me. Despite having a Masters and being a certified teacher, I NEVER got a job. Besides they take 40% of a tutor's wages, which is unheard of!

I was looking for PSAT tutor for my very bright daughter with some problems in reading. This site offers a nice choice of tutors and they respond very quickly. But the rates of the tutors on this site is higher than on similar sites. And actually it seems to me that the same tutors are listed in several web-sites.

I have been tutoring for Wyzant a little over a year. At he present time I am tutoring as much as is reasonably possible. I have only secured 2 students on my own (4 hours per week), but through Wyzant I average about 10 hours per week.

I have seen complaints about the amount of money that Wyzant retains from the sessions. It does decrease as your accumulated hours increase. At the present time I am at the top percentage of pay. Using Wyzant has been a really good experience. I don't need to market myself, or worry about collecting my fees. All of this is done for me. Anyone that complains about the fee that Wyzant retains forgets that it is a business and a business does need someway to make money.

As for students not responding to email, parents can go out and review your profile and decide if your rate is within their budget and if you have the right skills they require. If not, they don't bother to respond. The reverse is also true. I have been contacted directly through Wyzant after parents have gone out and reviewed my profile.

The tutor needs to market themselves on Wyzant to maximize their students. I reviewed other tutors in my area to see what rate was being charged for comparable skilled teachers. I also ask my parents to leave a write up if they feel that I am doing a good job.This written commentary appears in my profile along with my rating. If your ratings are not good from parents, then you need to take the initiative to inquire from the parent what they feel you need to do that you are not. It is the tutor's responsibility to respond to job postings in a timely fashion (since they can be filled quite quickly), prepare for the sessions, and openly communicate with the parent beyond the session write-up. Just waiting for Wyzant to "drop" a job in your lap is unrealistic.

It works; I got some business through the site. In fact, finding students through the site was a little easier than without it. However, I still had to work very hard for those students and only about 1 out of 14 correspondences ever lead to a lesson. Most of the students I was in contact with were not even valid because the WyzAnt system is all about students placing their credit card info on file, which they're understandably cautious about. Then the site has the nerve to ask for up to 40% of my income!

WyzAnt has a strange business model. They take a significant cut of your hourly rates, but set you up to meet in person. Considering this, I suspect tutors and students cutting the site out of the deal is a huge problem, at least in part justifying their apparent neurosis. They could make it a little better by at least offering tutors a more reasonable cut of the income they generate. To make matters worse, the vast majority of students I connected with through the site did not have billing info on file and were thus off limits. I ended up spending substantial time explaining the billing system to weary customers and easing their concerns only to find that most of those cautious customers found a tutor elsewhere.

With all these students with no billing info badgering me to meet them anyway, I had my work cut out for me just fending them off. One day a very professional and respectful young man started with his concerns about the billing system and asking me to meet him at his school and cut the site out. I tried and tried to ease his concerns but he insisted I meet him and gave me a location. I said I'd come talk with him in person about the billing system and help ease his concerns. Within hours of this, my profile was disabled. After all those countless hours laboring for the company trying to get students to do as WyzAnt wanted, put billing info on file, this one little incident got me zapped out of the system. Talk about institutional neurosis.

I think the concept is good, but the business model sucks. I did a little research on the owner and everything became clear. He's an ex-Wallstreet dropout taking his holier than now ripoff scheme to tutoring. Taking 40-60% of the tutor's rate is outrageous and claiming it in the name of administrative costs. It smells funny to me. We have to stand up against these people with bad intentions and hold them accountable.

I signed up for this website hoping to make some extra money. I am a full time college student, studying to become a certified teacher. I have 2 associates degrees and am a member of the international honor society Kappa Delta Pi.
As soon as I paid for the background check and passed it, I got an email from wyzant saying that I was not qualified.
RIP OFF!!

Would give them negative stars if I could. Abysmal customer service. They treat tutors very poorly and charge a starting fee that is 40% of the total fees paid on the website by students. Would not recommend to anyone.

I worked for wyzants for a year as something to do while job searching for a job after getting my masters. I had some tutoring and teaching experience at the college level but more from volunteering. I found it really easy, I started off slow picking up a couple jobs in different places but by the time I found a full time job I had 10 regular clients and was getting more people daily. It was a really good experience, I tried to post ads on a couple other places cause they didn't take a cut but never had any legit clients from the site. So I would rather have the site take a cut then not have clients. I was working with one client that had to get paid a different way because he was being paid by a nonprofit and the company really worked to get that all set up. The better I did the more ratings I got and the more people who wanted to tutor with me. I never had any problems with the site and I only had positive interactions with them.

I've been finding students through Wyzant for about three years, netting about $30K for about 600 hours. I think Wyzant's end comes out to about $8K (I forget just when I raised my rates). Right now I bill $80 per hour and keep $64. Package discounts come out of Wyzant's end. It's not nearly a living, but it isn't nothing, either.

Over this time, the site has developed a bit, and some initially infuriating site behavior (clunky interface, slow server) has improved quite a bit. There are still some page glitches. Administrative responses to queries have always been prompt.

Their cut schedule seems fair--hey, they have a business model, and if you want to use their bulletin board service and accounting, you pay their fee. They try to control student/tutor contact to prevent poaching (from other tutoring services) and cheating (by their own tutors and their own students). Some of the resulting policies are silly (like how they don't print your registered clients' full surnames--you tend to find this stuff out when you meet them for the first time) and some of them are annoying and silly (like how they lock communications when long-time clients change credit cards without telling them). But I understand and respect their paranoia.

If I were to recommend one change, it would be to eliminate the word-count check on tutor lesson summaries. I do resent a computer program telling me how to write. Of course, it doesn't complain if you fill out its requirement with jabberwocky. If I were to recommend another, it would be to edit the mistakes out of some of their tutor qualification quizzes. Those could be a bit more rigorous, too--though that might cut significantly into their tutor base.

Overall good experience as a beginning tutor. I was able to get 5 students within a month of joining the site. There are some algorithmic problems in how they look at underpreforming tutors which, importantly, they seem to be aware of and are looking to fix. I look forward to a continuing relationship with this company.

I have been tutoring with Wyzant for about 6 months now. I started soon after finishing grad school. I appreciate the services it provides, and wish I would have known about it when I was a student.

Pros: I like that the financial information is handled through Wyzant. They ensure the money is there to pay me, and I don't have to do a thing. I have had students who short me on what they owe; some tutoring sessions take longer than expected. With Wyzant I never have to worry about that. Also, they give me greater visibility than I have been able to find anywhere else. Want ad postings get me a fraction of the exposure I get through Wyzant. And their website ensures a satisfactory experience for the student as well. Their certifications help weed out those who don't have a clue, they offer a satisfaction guarantee for the first lesson, and offer background checks on the tutors.

Cons: They're expensive. For me to make my normal rate, I have to charge an extra $10 to cover the cut Wyzant takes. Also, they limit my travel radius to 40 miles, when I would be willing to travel twice that distance to reach higher densities of students in my core subject areas.

Conclusion: Wyzant offers screened tutors at a moment's notice with a minimum of fuss. However, you pay for their services, perhaps a little more than expected.

I have been a tutor for a year and it has been rewarding on one side and also not so on the other. It is rewarding indeed to find new students and teaching them, but on the side, I don't have only good comments for the On-line tutor company. It is not so easy to find students, even as WyzAnt says that all the marketing and payments get on their hands, it is your job to follow all the E-mails and maketing yourself through your mails and successive contact with the customers, which I don't mind. But sometimes there are long periods of not having custormes and then they can deactivate your account without any explanation. Also they deactivate the account without warning, if they see something in the communication e-mails between you and your student they don't find within the rules of their company, such as giving your phone, or making appointments without them as intermediaries. They could give a warning, and not being so radical or dictatorial as they are, especially when I have been earning money for this company, that takes the 40% of your hourly rate. It is not a way to appreciate their tutors.

Wyzant is literally the best representation of what is wrong with the education system in america. ALL TAKE BUT NO GIVE.
Since Wyzant acts like the fricken FSB, they moniter everything you do and take 40% of your cut = TUTORS charge high prices, students pay high prices, and they get 40% of the cut for doing absolutely nothing.

I was a tutor on Wyzant for a few months and I got banned from the website because of 1 EMAIL. Something that should not have even been my problem and I get banned without even a first time strike or anything.

Literally this website sucks ass... WHY in gods name should a website take a percentage of a tutors hard earned rate?

The customer service also blows chunks... Supervisor is a $#*! with sand in her vagina and the normal Reps are absolutely clueless.

Is the website really good? THAT DEPENDS

You get a lot of mixed reviews... some people are happy and some people aren't. However people saying they worked over 400 hours in less in six months seems impossible unless: They are already tutoring a LOT of people and started to tell them(pay me through wyzant which is dumb), they have a good network(know a lot of people), or just really lucky(which I don't believe). You can see on a tutor profile of how many hours they worked, and most I seen was +100 hours on wyzant but mostly +50... if any.

Honestly, there are a lot of factors that are involved that is often overlooked. Wyzant "markets" for you, but often it is a "equal opportunity" for everyone.

Like a pretty girl in school that has to a pick a classmate to get help on a school project, everyone raises thier hand... but she can only pick one. Same thing with Wyzant, everyone has an "equal opportunity". But Is it entirely "equal"? Not really because that is how the world works(just like that pretty girl has preferences when she picks someone).
Overlooked
First is Ignorance....People put pictures of themselves on thier profile(following the advise of wyzant), but too formal or informal, unprofressional, or just creepy. Imagine people don't know you and you have to make the best impression when you first meet them. Some just see a picture, and doesn't matter if you have a background check, doesn't matter if you are "well educated", doesn't matter how great you think you are... if that picture doesn't show that, people won't bother to investigate you further.

Second is sterotyping. Depending on where you live, people have already an ideal image of who they looking for. Someone who looks older(30-40) and female. Some females who are in thier twenties have an advantage because they are known to have good social skills. If your a male, your at a slight disadvantage...but you must talk clean, look clean, and appear trustworthy and approachable. What I mean about slight disadvantage, people trust women more than men especially when it comes to tutoring. Also, people tend to stay within thier own culture when looking for a tutor. EXample. white family looks first for a white tutor. Because they feel they can relate to the tutor easier than someone outside thier culture... but that is just a preference. I tutor different people from all walks of life.

Videos and blogs- which is great, but I see really unprofessional videos where people use thier own webcams and poor lighting, Making themselves look very creepy and untrustworthy. If you do a video, invest your time and money. usually a white background and good lighting, but no video is better than a bad video.

If you write... spell check and think about what really matters to the audience(that is marketing). Often too much weight is placed on "my degree" and that is it.That is not marketing.. that is just proving you know the stuff. Just because you know it, doesn't mean you teach it well. Marketing is thinking about what matters to the audience and tailor the matieral to them. And I found people without degrees can sometimes tutor better then teachers who worked for years. So the style of writing gives people an idea who how you teach which can be good or bad. Focusing on the audience also helps you avoid from appearing stuck up.

How much people you know offline? If your working in a school, your at an advantage. If you work around a lot of people, tell them and spread the word, print business cards and advertise. You can still have a life, but just because you have a wyzant profile ... don't expect immdiate business(and don't be surprise if you don't get any business at all).

I just opened a wyzant profile. Also a Facebook page, a linkin page, and have my own website www.hamptonroadsmathtutor.com, and find other ways to spread my wings, soon getting a thumbtack page.

I don't mind the wyzant 40% at first, because not all my tutoring jobs are through wyzant.


For the most part... not everyone succeeds just like that some classmates will never get picked by that pretty girl. So you have a wyzant profile... so do hundreds and hundreds too. What you have to offer, what make you stand out? Many people have degrees, many people have certifications so you have to be different.

Focus on the audience and what *they want* and deliever that message that you can provide it.(That is marketing)

I have been a tutor with WyzAnt in a major metropolitan area for a year, and I have worked at least 10-15 hours a week almost since the very beginning. So I feel I have enough experience to review the company from a tutor's perspective.

First, the good:

1. WyzAnt offers tutors the ability to create a very detailed profile page that includes your picture, blog, videos, and detailed descriptions of the different subject areas you teach. They also include written testimonials from students. This means you don't have to have a separate website to advertise your work. Plus, they market you aggressively - just do a Google search for "tutor" and you will see WyzAnt's sponsored ads and very high position in Google search results.

2. You set your own rate and WyzAnt takes 40% at first, but as you get more and more hours, WyzAnt takes less and less of a cut. This is a great incentive to work your butt off and it feels really great to get a sudden pay increase after hitting 20 hours. Remember, if you are working 10 hours a week, it is not going to take long to get a pay increase. The pay increases schedule is as follows:

0-19 hours: you keep 60%
20-49 hours: you keep 65%
50-199 hours: you keep 70%
200-399 hours: you keep 75%
400 + hours: you keep 80%

The cut that WyzAnt takes may seem like a lot at first, but you get a lot of value for that price. I have my own website in addition to WyzAnt's website, but I get almost no inquiries from that site and I get at least 4 or 5 inquiries each week from my WyzAnt's profile.

3. WyzAnt makes sure that students submit billing information before they schedule a class, so you don't get burned. Some on this site have complained that this scares students away, and I am sure it does, but if they are so easily scared by the reality of having to pay, then it's probably best to let them go.

4. WyzAnt has recently improved the way they pay tutors, so you get your pay about five days after submitting the lesson, and you can get it by direct deposit.

Now, for the (very) bad:

1. WyzAnt does not make students pay in advance. So, if a student cancels 10 minutes before the lesson, or doesn't show up at all, then you get nothing. Unless you charge the student for the class anyway, which is your right. However, you run into the next problem...

2. WyzAnt allows students to leave anonymous ratings for every lesson, even when the student is charged for cancelling at the last minute or not showing up at all. So if you charge the student for the no-show, don't you think the student will retaliate by giving you the lowest rating possible? Of course!! Who wouldn't do that if they were ticked off about being charged?!? I have talked to the company about this, and they really don't care. Their response is, "Go ahead and charge the student." If you say, "But won't the student retaliate?" they will answer, "Maybe." Thanks, WyzAnt, for caring.

3. Another problem with the anonymous review system is that students use it to get free hours from you or manipulate you into breaking your agreement with WyzAnt. I have had more than one student say that if I don't charge them for the first lesson, or if I do some editing at home for free, or if I do their math homework and send it back to them (again, for free), then they will make sure they give me good ratings and testimonials. The unspoken message here is that getting a good rating from them depends on my willingness to give them my time for free. When this happens, you feel that even if you don't want to make any deals with them, you still can't charge them for your time, because they will retaliate. This kind of situation has happened to me a few times. I always tell the company about this and their response? "Go ahead and charge the student." Uh, okay. Thanks, WyzAnt.

4. Can't you just deal with this by refusing to work with the student? Not if you want to stay on as a WyzAnt tutor. There are numerous horror stories floating around by people who got canned because they turned students down. If you want to stop working with a student, you have to be VERY careful how you do it, because the company monitors email very closely. They have a bad reputation for suddenly and inexplicably terminating tutor accounts for little or no apparent cause. So, it's best not to make this your only job.

5. Did I say that WyzAnt markets you aggressively? Well, that's not all good. WyzAnt will take any information you put in your profile and sell it to other sites, who will post fake profiles for you on their sites, as if you made the choice to register. Don't believe me? Check out Teach Street and you will see many WyzAnt tutors who probably don't know they are there. You can tell because if you click on their "website" link it will go directly to their WyzAnt profile. I found myself on that site and a few other websites and demanded that they take my profile down, but they refused. Why not just enjoy the added publicity? Because some of these other sites look shady, and your association with them makes you look shady, too. Also, some of them have policies regarding student ratings and reviews that you may not like. For instance, anyone can register as a student on Teach Street and leave you any reviews they want – they don't have to be your student. As a woman, this really creeps me out.

For me, the bad grossly outweighs the good, so I cannot recommend WyzAnt for people who are looking for a primary source of income. However, it is fine if you are only interested in working for about 10 hours a week, and you are okay with losing money on no-shows and late cancellations, and you are okay with the uncertainty of never knowing when WyzAnt will suddenly cut off this stream of income. Hey, until I can replace that 10 hours, I'm still working with them. (Or until I get canned. I'll keep you posted.)

I am a Wyzant tutor and the experience has been great. So many whiners on here. If you feel 40% initially is too high, why not build your own site, manage it, market it, collect your fees, deal with charge backs and customer complaints, reply all the thousands of clients you will get, collect on bad checks....you get the message. We live in a society of whiners who will complain if they won a million dollars in the lottery.

Why would any parent be concerned about how much a tutor is getting paid? The client has already committed to paying that amount so who cares. I hope no whiners on here completed college because that would be so sad. With your degree you should be competent and resourceful enough to build your own tutoring company and pay tutors 100% while paying for marketing, payroll etc. Go ahead and try it.

I prepare for my lessons, tutor students in my local area through Wyzant, receive my earned income and love what I do. If I could build my own site I would have. Obviously I can't that's why I signed up with Wyzant and they're great.

Good for getting started in the tutoring business. Flexibility, patience and following up helps a lot. The 40 percent cut for newbies is a bit steep, but the experience and connections you'll make helps offset that.

I signed up as a tutor with WyzAnt. They are a horrible company and I urge any who wish to tutor not to bother with these scam artists and have nothing to do with them. I am a certified teacher having a teachers license in mathematics. I thought I would tutor students in Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, and other math subjects. This service is pathetic. It is a scam and should be shut down by the consumer protection agency.
No matter what student I contacted assuming they are real and exist, I got zero responses after about 40 tries. Every message is the same. The student would get back to me via their email. We are not allowed to use our own emails. No one emailed my account, not one so called student called. Mind you I am not some jackass off the street. I AM A CERTIFIED MATHEMATICS TEACHER FULLY LICENSED BY THE STATE. I got zero responses.
This service is corrupt and is about as big as a rip off scam service as their is. I urge anyone who wants to tutor especially those who wish to tutor in math to not waste their time with this site. To my fellow mathematics teachers, this is your warning. Avoid this site and use your time for more productive pursuits.

"Great and fast service!" - Maria Veronica A. from Lowell, MA
I signed up in WyzAnt and within a day being part of the tutoring community I found my first tutoring job. It was so fast! After the first two weeks tutoring, I got my first payment as a direct deposit in my account. It is so convenient. Submitting the lesson is so simple. The whole site is just amazing, you can search for jobs, get alerts in your personal email about new possible jobs, submit lesson, check how many hours have you done, review payments, see how much you have earned... and more!!! I'm very satisfied with the service WyzAnt offers!

What a Joke!!! As a tutor, I have always worked as an independent contractor. There are a number of sights out there that will allow you to list your resume' for free. Yet, this website requires a 20-40%!!!!!! cut of all profits? WTF!!! That is WAY too much to charge for a little blurb on a website. Now, if they want to pay for my gas, provide me with a site of my own, market my services, etc. ...maybe but what in the world are they going to do for ME that would warrant my paying THEM $10-15 an hour? I mean really! you can't be serious!

I agree with Sean, and will add to what he wrote with what I've experienced.

WyzAnt is very strict with their rules, which I can understand, but it's a bit over the top in my opinion. I read through all the rules and regulations and thought it was a pretty good site to at least get the ball rolling. My experience has been that after I finally talk to parents on the phone, they tell me that they were hesitant about adding their billing information and didn't realize that 40% of a tutor's earnings goes to the services of WyzAnt. Although they didn't know this information ahead of time, all the information is in the rules and regulations and on the 'how WyzAnt works' page. It also includes that if parents question the security of adding their billing information and are hesitant, there are different things we can tell them, which a list is provided of what we can say, one is assuring them that they will not be billed until after the tutor submits lessons and another is that they can call WyzAnt directly to ask further questions about it. For that reason, it is so important to read through everything before signing on so that the tutor and client are not surprised later when something is brought to their attention. So, WyzAnt informs us that nothing is billed to the parent or whomever, till after lessons have been recorded and submitted. This allows time for parents to get to know the tutor via phone and during the first session with the child. And, interestingly enough, that is when a parent also learns more information about WyzAnt from the tutor and then can decide whether they want to move forward with the website or drop the website and just pay the tutor in full. So far, my clients don't like that 40% is going towards the website. However, another way to look at this is that 100% is paid to the tutor via the website, and that it's the tutor's decision to have 40% taken from their earnings. This is what the tutor agrees to when he/she signs on with WyzAnt. If it's approached that way, then the client doesn't have to feel like they're paying for WyzAnt's services, but instead, the one tutoring is paying for the services. While there are both pros and cons to the website, I personally am not impressed with the site and was also terminated. I wasn't given a reason for my termination other than "You violated the rules." I let the parents know this, and it gave them even more reasons to not like and not trust the WyzAnt website. Additionally, I think it's a downfall on the part of the site to not be able to exchange phone numbers before the billing information is submitted. I believe that the site would be more successful, more popular, and more trustworthy if clients can speak with tutors on the phone before proceeding. It seems to me that tutors can begin submitting lessons before the first lesson even exists, or at least that would be the fear of the client. I received a message from a mother asking if I could tutor her son and she left her phone number. Of course on my end, instead of seeing the number, it was all Xes. I wrote back letting her know that WyzAnt requires billing information before we can exchange numbers and before we can meet for our first session. I did not hear back from this mother after that. What a bummer! I don't know if it was something I said that made her not respond, or what. I don't like that and it makes me feel uncomfortable. I agree with others that the website has potential, but it certainly has flaws that need improvement. Many say they have had positive experiences and are satisfied with how the website works, but like I said, I was never given a reason as to why my profile was terminated, so it can happen to anyone. I thought about contacting them, but it sounds like they don't accept people's responses and that they don't give them a second chance. That is their lost... They aren't the only service that exists or the only way to find clients.

And taking the short quizzes in order to be certified or qualified to tutor is a whole other subject to discuss. Some of the quizzes are super easy, but the language ones are a bit advanced. Even though I have a BA degree in specifc languages and have passed the language quizzes, I wasn't planning on tutoring advanced level language students. I only want to tutor beginning learners or 1st-year students, so knowing advanced knowledge is irrelevant. I think the quizzes should be designed for different levels and not for experts only. Those who are experts aren't going to be looking for tutoring jobs anyway. If I was an expert, I'd be applying for full-time teaching positions, a job that requires translations or interpreting, or even for the CIA. Well, that's all I have to say at this point.

The basic site is actually a great idea and works well. It's nice to have a site that fully displays tutors so students can compare them, and it also vets tutors background to some extent so students feel confident in the service they're buying.

The problem is that it takes 40 percent of the profits just for introducing tutors and students. This makes tutors increase their rates and makes students and their families spend unnecessary money that only goes to a corporation. Hopefully another developer will see the potential for a great business by competing with WyzAnt to make them drop their fees ... or possibly even go to an ad-sponsored site (that would be truly wonderful for students and tutors!).

WHY TO AVOID WYZANT LIKE THE PLAGUE AS A PARENT/STUDENT and AS A TUTOR

FOR PARENTS/STUDENTS: While some WyzAnt tutors are likely very qualified to tutor in their respective subjects, many more are not. How do I know? Because I was one of their 'certified' tutors in 15+ subjects which I supposedly had 'expert knowledge' of! I was 'certified' to tutor Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Dreamweaver, Kung Fu, Violin, and Spanish, along with the subject in which I have an actual Ph.D. I 'earned' my certification by correctly answering 6-7 basic multiple-choice questions in their ridiculously simple online certification exam. While I rarely received inquires from students seeking tutoring in my actual area of expertise, I frequently received emailed inquires from people about those areas in which I had only limited knowledge. If their knowledge seemed more limited than mine, I 'tutored' them. If not, I politely declined.

When I did tutor them, WyzAnt collected 40% of my earnings. As my tutor 'pimp,' this was the company's cut for serving as the middle-man. Consequently, my tutoring services had to be priced significantly higher than they would typically be were I connecting with clients independently.

BOTTOM LINE: You will pay a lot more through this site for tutors who have not been vetted in any serious way. Furthermore, you will be supporting a business that exploits its independent contractors in ways that would make even a whorehouse madam blush.


FOR TUTORS: Wyzant will flatter you by immediately certifying you in everything from Cannibusiness to City Planning for Nomads. The company will then send you emails containing the (often dreadful) requests of prospective clients who you will reply to and who will then never reply back. When you are lucky enough to make a match with a client, WyzAnt will take 40% of your earnings, then, once you get close to logging the 40 hours required for a pay cut increase to 65% (!), they will send you an email out of the blue (essentially) telling you that your profile has been deleted because you have not been connecting with enough clients (i.e., bringing in enough money for them). You will be dropped like a used-up hooker without notice, and you will try to email them to find out what the problem was, and they will not respond to you because the recent Ivy League grads who own and operate the company have absolutely no basic customer service or HR management skills.

BOTTOM LINE: You will waste a lot time searching for legitimate jobs, replying to flaky clients and meeting clients for one-off sessions that don't have the potential to become steady meetings. Then, without notice, you will receive an emailed form letter stating that your account has been terminated. Best to use your time to develop your own website, flyer your local schools or manage a listing on Craigslist.

As a recent college graduate and teacher at the high school level, my income is not the highest. I love what I do and couldn't envision myself as anything other than a teacher, but right now, I need some money to have some spending cash. I was speaking with a friend of mine who recommended I take a look at Wyzant and intially I was skeptical: internet company and the company seemed to take 40% of my earnings. However, I signed up and have been rewarded. As others have said on this site, the first few times you tutor, Wyzant takes a decent percentage, but it is still profitable and after that...you take home close to 100 percent. It's great, I am constantly contacted by users looking for my tutoring experience and living in the Boston area, it is easy to meet up with different clients. All I can say is that this site is fantastic, customer service reps are 100% responsive and the management is great. Love this company, recommend for anyone looking to tutor!

I love working with Wyzant! I signed on as a tutor a month ago and I have 3 active clients and will be adding 2 more next week. I've moved up a pay level, and should be up to 70% within a month. I'm planning on raising my rates in January when my client base is more secure to make up for the student discount. They increase my business by providing qualified leads, eliminating lost income from charge backs, non-payment, bounced check fees, etc. Their billing and payment system reduces the amount of record keeping I have to do for taxes. They have terrific SEO and other marketing. I can charge whatever I want, and I have compete freedom to tutor outside the company. The 'billing info on file' rule can be inconvenient and I understand they're working on improving the system. It provides some security so that I don't go to a fake address and get jumped. Their strict guidelines for tutors are important for maintaining their reputation for quality, which brings me quality clients. All they ask in return is a small fee and that I play by the rules. If you read the negative reviews by clients it's obvious that non-responsive tutors create an issue that costs all of us business. If you are committed to delivering quality services as a professional educator and business person, Wyzant is a great company to be associated with.

I used WyzAnt to search for a tutor and within a week I had set up my
first session with a tutor. The profiles of tutors are so easy to read
and the web site is very user friendly. Even when I wasn't emailing
tutors, tutors were emailing me giving their credentials and why they
would be a good fit to tutor me. There is such a wide variety of
tutors for so many different subjects that I am sure to use WyzAnt for
any of my other tutoring needs. I loved the package deal that came
with pre-ordering credit from the website, as tutoring can get
expensive it is nice to get a break anywhere you can, and WyzAnt
definitely gives you the opportunity to save money and get extra
credit for tutoring every which way you turn. The site also gives you
tutors that are in your area, so finding a tutor that can meet at your
home, or your college is as easy as 1 2 3. I loved using this website
to search for a tutor and definitely suggest this site to anyone else
who is looking for a tutor.

It sucks !
I looked on the site and found a few tutors that listed the skill I was looking for. After sending $400.00 to this site, no one answered my ad. So I requested a refund. I got $360.00 back. What a deal. Is the U.S. government running this site ?
Sam Lindsey - slindsey_tx@yahoo.com

WyzAnt - not so wise!!
Here is the other side of the coin that I experienced:
I have been desperately trying to secure a statistics tutor for my daughter who just started at Ohlone College in Fremont, CA (San Francisco Bay Area). The Wyzant website looked like a great place to start when I read their propaganda, but after two weeks of waiting for responses from their tutors, only one has replied to say he was out of town. The others have not responded at all! Even though the site states a 48hr reply period. Yesterday (Oct 27, 2010) I sent an email to Wyzant to find out why there is such a slow turn around - You would think their office would at least try to contact me immediately for good customer relations, I even gave them my work phone number. But what really makes me disappointed is the fact that they insisted on having my credit card information before I could expect any phone reply from the prospective tutors. Well they have my credit card (since 4 days ago), but not one person has called me back. I will post an update if anyone does decide to contact me. Right now I would recommend finding a tutor at the school where your child is attending because this company should be graded with an 'F' for failure to perform as stated.

The person below who claimed that Wyzant takes 40% forever clearly didn't read at all. The have a system so that as you tutor for them your cut increases, until you're at 80%. And as others have pointed out, with the discount packages they offer the students, that means for some tutoring they actually receive nothing.

It is a great service. In less than two weeks I found two students and have made more money than I had budgeted for.

My only complaint is that the website sometimes is buggy for me, with having to reload pages multiple times occasionally. But this is a small complaint for such an awesome service.

I was a tutor with Wyzant for 4 years (American History/World History/Hebrew/SAT/GRE/Microsoft Excel/Word/Publisher/Powerpoint/Access/Outlook/General Computer). Worked with over 40 students, got the highest reviews. And with their commissions, Wyzant made plenty of money off my services, believe me. I taught in both the D.C./Metro and San Diego regions.

Last week, I was abruptly dumped from Wyzant because "I no longer figured in their core marketing metrics." HUH?! This, while I was in the midst of tutoring two clients FOR WYZANT. When I contacted Wyzant inquiring as to what was to be done about the students I was working with, they never responded. I know where their bottom line is.

I found a tutor that seemed to good to be true for the rate they were charging. Her first communications were very friendly, but when I actually submitted my credit card info she became much more evasive about scheduling something and suggested I look for another tutor. I am almost certain it is a fake profile put there to come up high on web searches and draw people to the site. That is a very shady business practice, I deleted my info and will not be using this company.

Wysant charges to much. I just started with them when I made I mistake and suggested that a student check somewhere else close to their home. This was done in effort on my part to get the student to join. Wyzant suspended my account.

If you are looking for a tutor ask your teachers first, then try local colleges and libraries you should be able to find a good tutor a lot cheaper than through this site.

I would like to know how many of the good reviewers actually work for Wyzant

We've been using this for a year, with great results. Effective tutoring, convenient service, highly professional, great value... Our daughter loves being able to reach out for tutoring whenever she needs it.

I have only been working a short time with WyzAnt, but I think that it is a great website with a lot of potential for qualified individuals.

It is true that less than qualified individuals may fall through the cracks in the signup process, but these individuals drop off quickly by either 1) not being as interested and therefore dedicated to making money with the site or 2) showing their faults when speaking and/or working with potential clients.

Yes, I would rather be able to receive 100% of the payment, however I set my rates to something I can survive with and know that I am receiving a lot for that 40%: leads, a large backing company, administrative assistance and peace of mind for payments.

I found WyzAnt through a Google search when I was in desperate need of help in organic chemistry. I emailed several tutors through the site, still not exactly sure that I'd even get a response. Within hours I had heard from three tutors and I settled on a young lady named Sana. She was $40 per hour which trust me is a great deal in NYC, especially for an Ivy League educated medical professional who travelled to my neighborhood, Union Square, for no extra charge. It was very helpful to be able to speak with Sana before making any payments or commitments. When I was ready, I added a credit card to the website and after the lessons I got an email from WyzAnt with my lesson details and the amount charged to my card. The combination of the tutor selection, price, quality and simply payment mechanism makes WyzAnt a great choice if you need a tutor. I would highly recommend the company and its tutors.

I registered onto Wyzant, and answered all the ads that were sent my way that I felt I was qualified to tutor. This company charges you to do a background check on yourself (of course, that's supposed to be an indication of your credibility), but I wrote the background check company, out of curiosity, to see what they turned up on me. I NEVER GOT ANY ANSWER from them. The company name is "Abso", I believe. I'll bet no background check was ever done on me at all. Wyzant just pocketed the money (a background check should cost about $8-9.00 but their fee was much, much higher than that). And I haven't even gotten to the % they take from any job I got from them..

Secondly, I was a comparative literature major, so I took their literature exam and FAILED! That was because it was designed like a test for a survey history course. Instead of asking about the meaning behind a classic work of literature (even giving the testee a multiple choice answer for ease), they asked quetions like "who wrote _____?" That's absurd. As a comp. lit. major I had to take at least one course on all the changing periods of literature, starting from the ancient greeks up to the 20th century. It covered things like the literature of the Age of Reason. I even took a course on the European Literary Influence on the Modern Hebrew Novel (400 level) and was the only non-Jew there! I took it because it interested me. There is so much out there, if you just count American literature, and who the heck cares who wrote it? Literature is a work of art, and the point is why was it written! What's the meaning behind the work? Whether we're talking about Hawthorne or Jean-Paul Satre, it is the purpose of the work that counts.

Oh, shortly after I made this observation, I was banned. I complained and was given my access back. Then a "tutee" scammer hit not only their site, but me too. I almost got taken for $3,000 because the company does not do any checking on the people who fill out the billing information. All they did to him was ban him from the sight. First this company wrote me a letter complimenting me for giving them the information about the scammer, and two days later I was banned for bad statistics.

I've had students who wanted to sign up with Wyzant who also wanted to avoid paying their prices and asked me to agree to tutor a student without working with Wyzant. I turned that person down and she found another tutor who was cheaper. I had another person contact me from an airport, asking for writing lessons, then paid Wyzant, but never got back to me. I wrote him several emails through Wyzant (I had no other info. on him) and got no answer -- what was I supposed to do? I also had a student who originally contacted me through another, cheaper site, but being a foreign student, she could not contact me back through that other site for some reason, so she entered herself into Wyzant, found me and asked me to tutor her. I advised Wytzant of this, which they never answered about at all. But 2 days afer I was praised for the scammer, I was kicked off the system again. The contract states that I can pick and choose who I take on as a student, but all of a sudden my ratio of student acceptance to student initial contact was too low. I complained about this series of coincidences, but was told that there was no way they would let me back in.

Well, I will tell you: I ran around in circles trying to cash that phoney check from the scammer who contacted me on Wyzant, so since they don't check up on their potential students, it was all in vain. I was saved by MY BANK, who called the bank of the fraudulent check writer and found out there was no money there to cover the check. So my BANK saved me -- Whyzant specifically states that they do no checking of students billing information in their contract.

To me, it was a close call, and I would never work for them again. If they're gonna make so much money on me as a tutor, they should be obliged to do a check on the people who submit billing information. I did not take up two other offers because I accepted the fraudulent student on Wyzant. And I certainly got nothing out of it!

As a registered tutor on wyzant, I was contacted by a number of students none of whom had billing information and we never met. Two more had contacted me but selected another tutor from a site outside of wyzant.

Today, I received a notice from Wyzant that my account has been removed because of lack of business and "not a good fit for you" as a reason. I routinely did searches, and responded to any relevant inquiries to my field(s). I even aspired to qualify for more subjects in order to attract more business. I haven't seen any other tutors with 26 areas of qualification. Also, this is summer vacation, most people are not in school now.. inactive indeed.

Bottom line, I find the business model on their end to be a good one, they take a big bite of a tutor's salary. On the receiving end, I was only using it to attract more business than I currently have (I have made as much as 1000 dollars extra a mont tutoring only part time, I have a full time job) and it's not a big deal to me but there was little or no attention to my areas (Science and math mostly) which are my biggest money maker as a tutor... so... I disagree with their reasons.

That, and I've never been on any kind of website that "cleanses" their account holder. If there were a better student base that went to their site, I'd have more clients. Of course, when you have zero, you can only go up right?

This website is wonderful! We vacation in New England during the summer, and I wanted to find a Spanish tutor for my kids while we were away. Wyzant.com made it so easy for me to find someone. Without Wyzant, I'm not sure how I would have done it. Wyzant hooked me up with a fabulous Spanish tutor that my kids love and have learned a lot from, and I am thrilled. I will definitely use this website again in the future. Thanks Wyzant!

Wyzant was a great source when I needed an accounting tutor. I was able to search through various tutors to find the one that best suited my needs. My tutor was always on time and responded quickly to my emails.

Going through Wyzant's website made me feel more secure about meeting with my tutor and submitting payments. The website was easy to use and setup!

My tutor also had great things to say about how easy Wyzant made it to connect with students!

WYZANT has been a 5 STAR company to work for!


I) Review of Wyzant:

In one year exactly, I moved to the highest Wyzant pay percentage. Out of every dollar billed to a client, 80% -100% now goes to me.

(Wyzant's cut after you put in four hundred hours is zero to twenty percent, depending on whether a client chooses a bulk tutoring package. In addition, when clients leave feedback about you, you make an extra couple of bucks - hence the possibility of making over 100%).

With my present rate, Wyzant makes $0 - $11 per hour on me. Do I get anything for that?

YES!!!

Here is what I get:

1) CLIENTS. (Folks who find me, who would never have otherwise.)
2) ACCOUNTING. (All billing matters taken care of.)
3) FULL PAYMENT. (If a client doesn't pay, I still get paid.)
4) SAFETY. (Clients have to provide billing information before seeing me.)
5) LIGHT SECRETARIAL SUPPORT. (This also occurs via the software itself.)

Now, the above is from someone who knew he wanted to put in a substantial amount of time tutoring. I therefore did not fret over the larger Wyzant cuts during the early months of tutoring. While I can certainly understand the stress a few-hours-per-week tutor might feel about a 60/40 split, Wyzant does not restrict its independent contractors from finding clients on their own.

My own experience however is that finding enough customers to pay one a reasonable salary takes time and effort. What is one's NET hourly rate, working on one's own, when part of your time is spent finding clients? What is that net rate when the other four points I mention above must all be done by one self?

Wyzant provides an incentive to become a successful tutor by offering pay percentage increases. A final Wyzant cut of 0% - 20% seems reasonable in light of what they offer. I understand that there will always be debate on what the early pay splits should be, and how many hours should be put in before each pay percentage is reached. For myself, I just kept sprinting, and now Wyzant is stuck providing me with free services whenever a client buys a full tutoring package.


II) Review of Wyzant Personnel:

Everyone I've ever interacted with at Wyzant has been extraordinarily helpful and cheerful. This was true when I joined and was waiting for my first client, and it remains so today as I collect 80% - 100% on multiple clients.


III) What I'd like to see improved:

Before I offer my two cents on how to improve Wyzant, let me be clear that they already offer a way each of its tutors can have their suggestions heard. I therefore have no need to offer my suggestions here, except to be comprehensive in this review.

For any tutor, one's net hourly rate depends strongly on four things: -The time expended finding clients. -Administration time (such as emailing clients, juggling schedules, tax preparation, etc). -Lesson preparation time. -Drive time.

Wyzant excels at finding new clients. I'd now like to see them dramatically expand point number five, "Light secretarial/software support", in order to reduce my administration time.

This could be done via software on wyzant.com where one could have access to an online calendar. There, tutoring sessions could be entered, mileage between students automatically calculated and tallied, contact information stored, etc. A sister piece of software, available for portable devices, would also be fantastic.


IV) Personal Data:

Finally, since some posters are vocalizing their upset over Wyzant's "take", I'd like to leave some explicit data on the topic. In my case, after registering with Wyzant, it took me three weeks to get my first Wyzant job at the base pay percentage.

---From there it took less than 2.0 MONTHS to move to the 2nd pay level.
---Then less than 1.5 MONTHS to move to the 3rd pay level.
---Then less than 3.5 MONTHS to move to the 4th pay level.
---Then less than 5.5 MONTHS to move to the final pay level.

This site is a fantastic way to find qualified tutors in any subject quickly and efficiently. I've used Wyzant as both a student and a tutor and have been very impressed with the business model, website, and the customer service!

Very bad experience with this website, both as a tutor and a student.

As a parent/student: It's disorganized, and you must submit your billing information to fully connect with a tutor. I'm not comfortable just giving my credit card information and hoping that I pick a good tutor - I prefer an in-person consultation before money leaves my pocket. Lastly, WyzAnt doesn't tell you that up to 40% of YOUR money is going to the website, not the tutor. And the website doesn't cost that much to maintain.

As a tutor: WyzAnt takes a big cut. They say it's great you don't have to pay to sign-up, but the cut out of your lessons adds up quickly. I use a different site that, to me, makes much more sense. With this other site, I pay $85/year to be listed - contact information can be exchanged freely, and tutors keep all of what they make. My second issue is the "certification" they offer - this is NOT legitimate certification. The quizzes are a complete joke - they consist of up to 10 questions and they are EXTREMELY basic. Thus, a tutor that doesn't really know a subject inside-out could still be "certified" to tutor it.

My last complaint (which affects both the tutor and the parent/student): WyzAnt's customer service is TERRIBLE. On their website, they say you can expect a "prompt response" when you email. So I first sent an email, which they didn't respond to. Then I sent another, which was again ignored. So I finally called and spoke to someone who said they would transfer me to someone else. When I was transferred, the phone rang once or twice and then went to an answering machine. I called again and asked when is the best time to reach that person because I didn't want to leave a message and possibly be ignored again. The representative said the best she could do is transfer me again and I should just leave a message. So I requested that, instead of being transferred, she give me the extension of the person I need to speak to. Sure enough, when I dialed the extension directly, someone picked up right away. WyzAnt intentionally ignores both calls and emails. It's very clear that this is a profitable website - the idea of it is great, but the execution of that idea is very poor. They don't invest the time, money, people, or resources to make sure things run smoothly so that both the tutor and tutee can be entirely satisfied with their services - I think this is a MAJOR flaw in running a reputable business.

I have had both positive and negative experiences with Wyzant, but only the negative were from Wyzant itself.

The positive experience I have gained is that I have a ton of glowing references now for when I enter the teaching market (I'm already certified), or start tutoring again.

Overall, though, Wyzant has a horrible business model. If you don't respond to a student within 24 hours, they start power-spamming you with emails to respond to that student (I've had emails as often as once every 3 hours before). Sometimes I just don't have time to respond to someone who isn't even a client yet in something that is supposed to, in the words of the site itself, be a source of "secondary income." At the beginning (which is until you've worked 40 hours - sounds small, but if you're unlucky and only have one kid for one hour a week or so, that's 40 weeks), they take 40%, so you get 60%. The people who buy your tutoring service on this website ARE NOT INFORMED OF THIS. The people who pay you for tutoring believe entirely that they are paying you, and this is where my negative experience comes in. There is absolutely NO transparency in the relationship between Wyzant and parents and/or students who are seeking to be tutored.

I tutored for Wyzant for almost a year, had a 5-star profile (with 17 reviews), and 12 active students at the time of my account "termination." I was tutoring for about 26 hours a week, which is more than a lot of people get with "real" jobs. I was certified to tutor 25 subjects.

The reason for my termination? Someone gave me their personal email in a Wyzant email, and even though I replied that it was against Wyzant's ToS to include personal emails in Wyzant messages if the person seeking to be tutored does not have billing information online, Wyzant terminated me ANYWAY. I called to ask about this, and was told "Well, that email sounds suspicious, don't you think?" That is not an acceptable reason for termination. Sure, it's legal because of their "we can fire you at any time for any reason" clause in their tutor terms of service, but it's still ridiculous. Someone gives me their email, I respond that it's against Wyzant's ToS, and I get fired for it? That is ridiculous.

I should have been going outside Wyzant the whole time, instead of getting paid through Wyzant. I would have made the money I was already making, plus Wyzant's cut. This is a site that has a lot of potential, but at the moment is a piece of garbage which will use you until they get their money from you (another reviewer put forth a rather detailed and accurate scenario), and then toss you away like nothing if you're "suspicious," like I suppose my 5-star, 17 user rating, 12 active student profile was. There is no review; there is no appeal. If you get suspended, you are suspended, even if you can put forth hard evidence that you did nothing wrong. They can, after all, fire you for any reason, right?

I'd like to reiterate that the only good things about Wyzant are the networking and connections you can make - they're a marketing website, not a real "tutoring" website. They sell you. Their tests for tutoring are not comprehensive at all, and are mostly stuff anyone who's taken a very, very introductory course in the subject can pass with flying colors.

In summary:

i) Wyzant is good for networking
ii) Wyzant takes 40% - 20% of your pay, determined by how many hours you've worked for them, and DOES NOT TELL THE PEOPLE WHO ARE PAYING WYZANT about this, so they believe that they are paying you. The average rate I saw on Wyzant was $40-$50 an hour, just so people could get past the 40% and actually make some money (the site itself starts you out as charging $40. That's really $24 an hour that you make, but $40 an hour that the parent or student thinks they're paying you). Another issue is that they pay you on the 1st and 15th of each month, assuming the 1st and 15th are not Sundays or holidays. What if the 1st is a Sunday and the following Monday is a holiday? That means you don't get paid until the 3rd, which is a pretty major chunk of time to be missing out on your paycheck.
iii) Wyzant can (and will) fire you once you have outlived your usefulness. I've spoken to several Wyzant clients and tutors, and both groups have given me horror stories of being "suspended" for doing nothing at all, or because they didn't reply fast enough, or because Wyzant just felt like it. I put "suspended" in quotations above because it's really termination - there is no appeal, there is no overview process, and there is no reinstatement of accounts. Once you're "suspended," you're off the site forever.

Summation is, Wyzant gets 3 stars out of 5 for networking, and 0 stars out of 5 for absolutely everything else.