Why Engineering Students Should Be Tutors

 

Tutoring signs! They’re everywhere on campus, especially in the buildings where STEM courses are held. Why is that?

Well, many students struggle with the material and need extra instruction. These frustrated students are willing to pay good money for this help.  Paying for a tutor is much cheaper than failing a class, paying for it a second time and taking a hit to the GPA.

Ok so we know tutors benefit failing students but why should you care? If you perform relatively well in engineering classes, you should consider working as a tutor!

Tutoring your fellow students benefits you in more ways than just one.

1.  Money, Money, Money

Let’s get the most obvious benefit out of the way first.  If you work as a tutor you will get paid.  If you’re like most students, any amount of extra money is helpful. 

Now, if you’re still completing your undergraduate degree you won’t be able to charge $100/hour like those with graduate degrees but you can still charge a decent rate.  Who will pay you to work as a tutor? 

• Many universities hire undergraduates as tutors and/or student instructors.  These jobs typically pay $10-$15/hour. 
• Other students in your degree program.  If they know you did well in the class they are currently stressed about, they will gladly exchange money for extra instruction, notes, tips on how to do well, etc.
• Parents of high school and middle school students.  There are a lot of parents that just aren’t comfortable enough with math and science to help their kids.  These parents want their kids to succeed so they will hire undergrad STEM majors for tutoring. 
• Online tutoring services.  With this option you can tutor via Skype and not even have to leave your home. Talk about convenient!

The more tutoring experience you have, the more you can charge per hour. 

2.  Being a Tutor Forces You to Learn

The saying  “You don’t know something until you teach it” is so true!

Teaching and explaining material to someone else requires you to think through all the steps.  You have to figure out simple explanations to complex problems.  Many times you have to come up with real-life applications of the concepts to get across the point. 

This requires in-depth knowledge of the subject matter. Learning all the details about a topic comes about while tutoring.

Before a session, you’ll review your material thinking you know it all.  Then, the questions will come! 

You’ll get asked all sorts of questions.  Questions you won’t expect, that will stretch your thinking and possibly make you research the material further after the fact.  Even university professors get stumped occasionally by students’ questions…we’ve all seen it happen!

 

3.  No More Forgetting Material

Another benefit of tutoring is that you are forced to remember old material everyone else has forgotten.  For example, if you’re tutoring students in Calculus you’re going to remember all the tiny details about derivatives.  This helps you, because when you get to the more advanced classes, you’ll recall all the needed background information.  

Think about all the times derivatives are used in fundamental classes like Fluid Mechanics and Dynamics.  A strong knowledge of calculus is key to understanding these topics! 

If you have to go back and relearn derivatives you’re wasting valuable time.  Tutoring the lower level coursework will definitely improve your performance in the upper level courses.

4.  Sets You Apart in Grad School

I know not everyone goes to graduate school but many people do.  Full time grad students typically get employed as Teaching or Lab Assistants.  These jobs involve grading papers and holding office hours, among other tasks, for undergrad courses. 

Departments want to hire workers that are knowledgeable in the subject matter.  There’s nothing worse for a professor, and the students in the course, than getting an assistant that knows nothing about the course material. 

The student complaints about the grading go through the roof! No professor wants to deal with this.

If you are competing with many students for the few positions available, previous tutoring work is an asset to you.  It’ll show that you are used to working with students and explaining material.  It will also show that you are knowledgeable in various subjects. 

Consider this scenario: Your department is looking to hire a teaching assistant for the undergrad Solid Mechanics course.  There are 5 applicants for the job.  All 5 have BS degrees with high GPAS but only you have experience tutoring students in Statics and Solid Mechanics. 

Who do think will get the position? Obviously, it would more than likely be you.

5.  Help Your Community

Many primary schools and community centers look for undergrads to come in and work with the low performing students. 

Volunteering to tutor these students would be great for the community and it would give you the satisfying feeling of helping others.  You just might be the role model an at risk student needs!

But My Grades…

You might be thinking “my grades aren’t high enough to be a tutor.”  If you’re failing all your classes then, yes, that’s probably true. 

But, if you have average-level knowledge in a subject then you posses the ability to work as a tutor.  Even if you’re making C’s in your engineering classes you could still tutor in basic areas like algebra, trigonometry and pre-cal. 

Plus, once you get to the upper-level engineering courses, lower-level courses like Physics and Statics will seem straightforward to you and they’ll make a lot more sense.  

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be a straight A student to help someone else learn.  You just have to know more than they do and be able to explain material in a way they understand. 

Plus, if you struggled through a course at times and succeeded in the end, you are the perfect person to help someone in that same situation.  You can relate to them in ways the straight A student can’t.  

What Courses?

Here are some lower-level courses that engineering undergrads could tutor for: 

Elementary School Level – math

Middle & High School Level – general math, algebra, trigonometry, pre-calculus, calculus, physics, chemistry

University-level – calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, programming (C++, MATLAB, etc.), statics, dynamics, solid mechanics, statistics, thermodynamics

In Summary

If you are needing work, consider tutoring!  It’s a fun job that’ll allow you to help others, while helping yourself at the same time. 

Try it out – you might find that teaching is a strength you never knew you had!