As an indoor learning and teaching space, we abide by university masking policy: Although they will continue to be required in all clinical settings, face coverings will no longer be required in indoor teaching spaces and libraries. Where masks are optional, we encourage all individuals who prefer to wear them to do so, and we fully respect that personal decision. Further, as the pandemic remains fluid, the university is prepared to revisit this change in protocol should future public health conditions warrant.
Please contact director if you wish to request special accommodations. Masks, sanitizing liquid and wipes are available for use. Tutoring stations are cleaned throughout the day.
You must have a 3.5 GPA, preferably with credits earned at Rutgers and you must have at least a 3.5 (B+) in the course(s) that you wish to tutor. Preference is given to students who can tutor multiple courses. We don't just want you have earned a good grade in a course. You should demonstrate a sustained ability to excel as a student both in a specific subject area and across a broad range of courses. Tutoring requires you to draw connections within and outside a specific content area, intuit questions that have not been explicitly asked, discuss prerequisite skill deficiencies and forecast upcoming skill and knowledge demands in courses subsequent to the ones in which you tutor. As such, we require a high degree of knowledge acquisition and comprehension, reasoning and problem solving fluency. Alternately, you may solicit a strong recommendation from your professor and department.
Yes you can. You may list your available hours and the minimum and maximum number of hours that you are requesting. This will be used to assign your hours. We require new tutors to work at minimum three sessions. We don't encourage you to work beyond part time hours as we don't wish to depend too heavily on any one employee and doing so may impact your own performance. We can discuss what's best in consultation but generally we are looking out for your best interest and ours when assigning hours.
Yes, but you must request to have a social security card with work authorization. This should be done after the offer of employment is made. You should work closely with the international student organization to make sure all procedures are followed.
We prefer you to have taken courses you wish to tutor at Rutgers simply because we want you to be familiar with our faculty expectations. However, we do recognize that some students may have taken college prep, are transferring from another institution or for other exceptional reasons have placed out of taking a particular course at Rutgers. In these cases you may request an exception be granted. We will make these decisions on an individual basis. We may also grant exceptions to the requirement that you have taken a course within one year but you must demonstrate current competency in the content material.
Please contact the Writing Center about your interest.
We would prefer to hire work study students but it is not required. Most of our tutors do not have a work study allocation.
We try not to. We'd rather you not change your hours either. If you have hours for which there are frequently no sign ups then we'd need to adjust them but with your knowledge and input.
The starting salary is $15.00 per hour. You will be paid every two weeks. There are nominal increases over time based on status and effort.
There is an initial 4.5 hour training and self-directed online training afterwards that can be competed in about 1.5 hour, which you are given a week to complete. Two additional mandatory staff events are held during the semester. Typically each is held twice and you are given the opportunity to select which day is more convenient for you.
During your tutoring session students may sign up for 30, 45 or 60 minute individual sessions. They may also sign up for 60 or 90 minute group sessions. Group sessions are capped at three students. Group sessions are kept to single courses, everyone must be enrolled in the same course but not necessarily the same section. Appointments are pre-scheduled so you are aware of who and how many students will be meeting with you and what course they will be coming to discuss. Students are also able to share what topic(s) they wish to discuss and send material for your review. You may also ask students for more information prior to their arrival. We may have drop in hours but that is a separate negotiation that is arranged in conversation. Most of your hours will be held in the RLC. Some of your in the RLC hours may be conducted virtually. Some of your total hours may be virtual and held outside the RLC at a place of your choosing.
Yes. You may call in to cancel that session if you wish, subject to your notifying a supervisor.
You should be able to explain concepts, link related topics, provide rationale and context, and explain intervening steps quickly and authoritatively, without substantial hesitation. You need not know the subject with as much breadth and depth as a professor but you will need to provide students with an understanding that is broad, deep, substantial, helpful, consistent with that of an accomplished senior student and most of all, accurate. You should not be in need of a refresher and you should not require continuous use of a teacher's edition. While some teachers' editions are available you should not be dependent on them. You should be more than just exposed to the material - a situation where you remember being taught it but the specifics have slipped away. You should not be working problems in order to jog your memory. Students come rightly expecting that you are fully prepared to respond quickly and fluidly to their questions.
You will be tested if students express dissatisfaction with your performance. Both you and your students are able to rate your sessions immediately after. We inspect these ratings weekly.
Some things you won't know and while I think it can be an instructive performance students don't enjoy watching you figure things out especially if it's prolonged. They interpret this as you not knowing what you are doing even though sometimes teasing out an answer is a much more impressive feat than merely remembering it. It can also be a wonderful opportunity for a teachable moment. For instance, it may spark a useful conversation about what is a useful protocol when you are stumped? Be that as it may, the proper response to this situation would be to say I don't know or I'm not currently familiar enough, conference with another tutor if someone is available, have them schedule with another tutor, speak with their professor or in some instances review the material and invite them to return. As an aside, being comfortable saying I don't know is actually a good exercise for you and for students. In the best instance, these situations happen 5% of the time but because you are continually reviewing the same material become less of an issue over time. Should preparedness become material I am much more amenable to working with you if you bring the matter to my attention rather than a student, as it speaks to some of the soft skills I mention below.
There are lots of different profiles. Struggling students who would like additional support, students who are stuck on a particular issue and need clarification but in general and otherwise are proficient, students who seek additional help because it's available. In most cases, student who come do so voluntarily so all are success oriented but at different places in their understanding. We tutor mostly first and second year courses and as a result see mostly first years and sophomores.
We require that students partner with the learning center. They should go to class, read their textbooks, take and review notes and attempt their assignments before seeking tutoring assistance. We do not wish to foster dependency and so while remaining empathetic we do expect that our tutors will hold students to this standard. We have found that some tutors find this aspect of the job to be the most difficult as it requires them to decline doing most of the hard work of understanding for students who did not do enough of the preliminaries. My advice is that you only submit an application if you can fully commit to this requirement. Also, you need to have good communication skills in English and be comfortable with face to face and small group interactions. Finally, you must take your responsibilities seriously. Students depend on you and expect your best effort. So do we.
First off, the logistics are great. You get to earn a decent salary while working between your classes and on campus with an organization that respects your student status. You are constantly revisiting your first and second year course material which not only helps you remember it but also deepens your understanding. If you're planning on taking entrance exams to professional schools later on this may prove invaluable. It's an important campus leader, knowledge worker job that requires many of the soft skills that employers seek and which you can demonstrate by maintaining good standing here. Many of our tutors tell us that potential employers were most interested in their experiences here and that discussing this position gave them an opportunity to showcase their talents. Finally, you meet a ton of people who look up to you and seek out your expertise.
There is an old saying that if you are the smartest one in the room then you are in the wrong room. You will be working among an exceptional group of hard working emerging scholars so you may one day group this among your "right room" experiences at Rutgers.
Mostly skills that tend to round out an exceptional academic career such as quick learning, trustworthiness, dependability, maturity, natural leadership, computer literacy, critical thinking, problem solving, novel thinking and innovation, solutions orientation, good attitude, good judgment, work ethic and helpful team membership, etc.