Here are the rules and policies for my tutoring service. I try to be flexible but fair to both the student and myself.
A few overarching rules:
Let me know if anything is unclear or you have any other questions, concerns, or comments.
If outside preparation is required, I'll let the student know. I consider reading a typical length assignment, refreshing my memory on a topic, or preparing an exercise or two routine preparation and don't charge for these things.
Students are locked in at the rate I was charging when we begin working together. If I and a student work together over a long period of time, I might need to raise their locked-in rate to account for increases in the cost of living and inflation. The last time this happened was after I worked with a student for several years.
For students with financial issues, I'm able to operate on a sliding scale and charge less than my usual rate. It doesn't matter if the issues are technically "your fault," and I do not ask for documentation, justification, or proof.
My regular hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday Central Time. Saturdays and Sundays I have off.
Outside these hours, including Saturdays and Sundays, I'm available for sessions that absolutely cannot be moved because of urgency, scheduling conflicts, or other special circumstances, but I consider that overtime and charge at time and a half. In other words, I'd bill for an hour as though it's 90 minutes.
I'm pretty flexible on scheduling and am often willing to do sessions with a few hours of lead time. However, last-minute scheduling is done at the student's risk: I cannot guarantee that I will see the message in time or that I will be available.
Similarly, if we aren't finished at the expected time and I'm not otherwise booked, I'm usually available to extend the lesson. I try to keep lessons to no more than two hours, although this isn't a hard limit, and I'm willing to do another lesson after a break.
For vacations and other planned leave, I inform students in advance, usually two to four weeks in advance.
Cancelling with less than six hours' notice or not showing up at all are charged half the hourly rate. If you are more than a half hour late, I charge for half the amount late.
I give students one free pass for cancellations or lateness.
While I try my best to avoid being late, cancelling at the last minute, or not showing up at all, if it does occur, I can either discount the next session or, if the student prefers, pay a cash refund.
Technical issues, health problems, or other circumstances outside the student's control do not count as being late, missing a lesson, or cancelling last minute.
I am taking in-person sessions again on an trial basis after pausing them due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While I do not require students to be vaccinated, I strongly encourage it for their own safety. Similarly, I don't require masks when meeting, but I strongly encourage wearing them in crowded places for their own safety.
I will periodically monitor the prevalence of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases and pause in-person sessions as necessary..
I accept a variety of payment methods, including checks, PayPal, and major credit and debit cards through Square, and am willing to consider using new services.
I bill for the actual time taken, rounded down to the nearest five minutes.
I define "generative AI" as AI tools built by taking enormous datasets and using various machine learning techniques to create statistical models that produce extrapolated output based on a user-provided prompt. More simply, they are programs that produce text, images, or video based on the user's instructions and the millions of words, pictures, and videos it's already seen. Examples of generative AI include GPT 4, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, Stable Diffusion, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and basically all Large Language Models and diffusion models.
I'm skeptical of the value of Generative AI in education. It's easy to overrely on it at the expense of basic skills or a deeper understanding of the concepts. It might be tempting to think that you'll use it sparingly or only for busywork assignments, but it's not always clear as a student what is truly busywork, and it can be a slippery slope when deadlines loom.
Plus, the technology is ethically fraught. These datasets are virtually always taken without permission or payment to the original creators and include personal or sensitive data. I require that students disclose their use of AI upfront. For example, you should not ask me for help with an essay written by ChatGPT without first clarifying that.
Given the technology is new and students and their situations are highly diverse, there may be exceptions where it is appropriate to use generative AI. One major exception is that I am happy to teach machine learning and how these tools operate algorithmically.
Students must be upfront with me about their use of generative AI in homework assignments, even if they believe they qualify for an exception.
In a sense this is no different than general principles of academic integrity (or integrity in art, writing, or software development). It's important to cite sources and not use significant amount of others' work without permission, even if cited. In many cases, generative AI violates both of those.
I cannot guarantee grades. I can point out major missing pieces or give feedback. If you aren't sure what your instructor is expecting of you or how something will be graded, your best bet is to ask them, not me.
Some teachers say, "I don't give grades. You earn them." While simplistic, it has a kernel of truth. In most cases, student effort and skill have a major impact on what your grade is. I can help increase student skill, but that also requires student effort.
For all their flaws, grades are an indicator of learning and, by necessity, students have to pay at least some attention to them if they want to succeed in academia or their career. Thus, it might be appropriate to give a partial or full refund if grades are drastically worse for reasons down to instruction from the tutor. However, due to all of the factors described above, a bad grade is not, in itself, grounds for a refund.
See Change History for all policy changes.
Monday, April 21, 2025 Added Generative AI and Grades policies. Updated rates to reflect end of discount.
Friday, February 2, 2023: Moved full change history to a separate page.
Monday, December 11, 2023: I added a note about masks to the COVID-19 policy.
Wednesday, August 9, 2023: Updated COVID-19 policy to reflect that I was once again doing in-person lessons.
Wednesday, December 8, 2021: Changed hours to exclude Saturdays.
Wednesday, June 23, 2021: Updated in-person rates from $35/hour to $40/hour for online lessons, from $40/hour to $45/hour for in-person lessons, and from $35/hour to $40/hour for additional preparation.
The first written version of the policy was published October 10, 2020. These policies have largely been in place since the summer of 2019, with two notable exceptions: I increased my rates in October 2019 and adopted an online-only policy in March 2020.