Graduate Tutor @ Emerson College

Emerson College’s website states that it

“is the only comprehensive college or university in America dedicated exclusively to communication and the arts in a liberal arts context…..”

Thanks to the initiative on the part of a student in its undergraduate “Marketing and Social Media” class, GraduateTutor.com will be sharing its experiences and challenges in marketing and social media.  We welcome this opportunity and as educators salute the college and faculty for encouraging learning through application as well as through interaction with industry.

Feel free to add your thoughts to the discussions below or on Twitter @senith where we will be live during the class session.

Update:  Did not happen!  Maybe next week.  Will keep you posted.

Colleges Face a Financial-Aid Crunch

Time.com reports on this story. Not breaking news – we have been hearing a lot about this and not great news either!

We hope the new administration has heard the concerns of students and understand the importance of college/graduate education for the future of American competitiveness.  However, before we sit back and expect the government and others to do something about it let us ask the question “What can we do about this?  Are there any creative ways to overcome this? How can I take responsibility here”

Part time jobs?  Entrepreneurship on the side? Opencourses (MIT / Yale)? If you have any creative ideas do email us.

President Obama’s online town hall meeting

President Obama is going to do a townhall meeting online!!  He has invited everyone to use a new feature called “Open for Questions” to ask a question about the economy and rate other questions up or down.

The first category of questions is on Education.  Please take your concerns to the President.  Sign in to the site and address your concerns regarding graduate education and graduate tutoring.

“What will you and your administration do to help make college more affordable for every American?” asks Jill from Chicago, IL.
CNN reported the following question on making higher education more affordable

“What is the government doing to make higher education more affordable for lower and middle class families?” asked James who described himself as a full-time student who also works full time, “only to break even at the end of the month.”

Two additional comments:

  • First let me say that going online is a great move!  Being an online service we understand the medium and its potential reach.
  • Second, please don’t miss this opportunity to take your concerns to the President.  Let the world know your concerns regarding graduate education.

“States disinvesting in higher education”

State colleges and universities are feeling the pinch just like many states themselves!  And they are responding just like the states and other organizations are by doing what they can to survive.  Unfortunately this means a lot of cuts.  Not good news for graduate education.

“The trend line is states disinvesting in higher education.”

So said Jane Wellman, executive director of the Delta Project on Postsecondary Costs, Productivity and Accountability, an organization that studies spending by colleges and universities in this NYT article.

While the mission of public universities and community and state colleges is providing local education, we hope the top universities and boards whose mission is to provide top quality and cutting edge education will not cut back on the investment in graduate education.  While undergraduate education is key for local economies today and in the near future, graduate education and research will be critical for long term growth and success.

Cheating Goes Global as Essay Mills Multiply

Thomas Bartlett has reported on how students are cheating with the assistance of online services in the latest issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Great work Thomas!

We at GraduateTutor.com are often approached to do papers and want to once again reaffirm our commitment to adhere to our ethical standards.  GraduateTutor.com adheres to generally accepted University honor codes and expects all students it serves to do so.

Students truly suffer the most from this dishonest practice as they have lost the opportunity to learn what the assignment / task had intended for them to learn!  Read more about what GraduateTutor.com will not do and why here.

What these services do is give the tutoring industry a bad name!  There must be services such as ours that abide by honor codes and established ethical policies.  We hope that these articles will in some way cover or mention the ethical companies too.

How to start a business: Business plans

Graduatetutor.com assists b-school students with tutoring in a variety of subjects.  We are now thrilled to formally launch our business plan tutoring services.

There has been a spurt of new entrepreneurs and we want to do our bit to support them.   See this special report on entrepreneurship in The latest edition of The Economist.  According to this NYT article, more people are now forced to start a business.  It may be that people are tired of looking for work like the title of this article says or it may be that you have less to lose once you are laid off!  Whatever your reason for starting a business is, it always helps to plan well before you do so.
Starting your business is a risky venture.  Statistics show that only one in ten or more businesses succeed.  What can you do to increase your odds of success?

Answer:  Write a business plan before you start a business.

We believe putting down your ideas in a business plan before you start really helps in many ways.  See our business plan tutoring page to read more on how a business plan can help before you start a business and how GraduateTutor.com can assist you.
People get ideas all the time  but unfortunately ideas alone will not create a successful start up.  The idea needs to be implemented.  But even  implementation is not sufficient to create a successful business.  The idea must be implemented in a manner that it must produce more revenues /cash flow than it costs to bring the product or service to the market.

Writing a business plan before you start a business will help you evaluate if your business idea can produce more revenues /cash flow than it costs to bring the product or service to the market.  If the answer is a resounding yes, then it is a wise decision to move forward.  If not, pause and think of a new idea.
We believe that if more people had written business plans before they started their businesses, the statistic that  nine out of ten startups fail would have been so much better!  So take our advice and write a business plan before you start a business!

(full disclosure:  We offer business plan tutoring services! Please don’t feel obligated to work with us.  Just write a business plan before you start a business.)

Good news! Student aid to stay….

More good news in a season of bad news!  This NYT article mentions that students can expect to get more aid instead of less aid this year.  This is based on a survey and is believable although it seems counter to what most would first expect in a time of shrinking budgets, donations and endowments.

We have also experienced that some colleges are also investing to retain their enrolled students by being more supportive.  Examples of support include providing them quality tutoring support.

We are always happy to help! If you know of colleges / MBA programs that are looking for high quality tutoring support, please do let us know.

Graduate Tutor is hiring!

Great news!  Graduate Tutor is hiring!  We are looking for:

  • MBA/Campus representatives:  If you are a student in a campus with a Business school or an MBA program and are interested in a very flexible part time job, please do contact us.
  • High quality MBA Tutors: We are always looking for top quality tutors to join us but are now actively looking for finance tutors capable of tutoring case studies taught at the MBA programs/Bschools, Statistics tutors, Operations research tutors.

More opportunities are listed here.

Student review / feedback on MBA private tutoring

We get great student reviews / feedback from our students.  We don’t post all the feed back in our blog since this was not the intention of starting this MBA Tutoring Blog!  But we like to post feedback that distinguishes our service from other tutoring services and this is one such student review.

Hi,

I wanted to provide feedback on tutoring I’ve been receiving this week on Quantitative Analysis. The tutoring sessions have been more in-depth that I expected when my university mentioned they’d arrange a tutor. I simply thought someone would call me to answer questions I had and hang up the phone. Your service that you are providing is far superior that my original expectations. I received a call where weak topics where shared, and on a later date lesson plans where set up providing an incredible foundation to arrive at an overall understanding of my weak topics. This was not a question an answer session, but more like a classroom environment with a ratio of one teacher to one student. I’m incredibly grateful for the time spent on helping me understand topics and appreciate the effort that was set forth. I would like to compliment your company on the superior quality of service you have provided and I know there will be many satisfied customers to come! Thank you!

Respectfully,

Karen Burkardt

Thanks for the feedback Karen! We enjoyed working with you!

MBA is still a ticket to success in the crunch

The Association of MBAs’ survey on the state of 2,000 MBA holders’ careers in June 2008, provides strong evidence that even in these uncertain times, getting an MBA is one of the best things you can do to ensure that you and your skills are in demand.

As an organization catering to MBA candidates, we see many students who go to great lengths to get their MBAs.  We aways tell them that it will be worth it in the end. When these tough times end, and tough times always do,  companies will be looking for smart, efficient people and will be willing to pay them accordingly.

An MBA is an investment that gives great returns.  This is borne out by the above mentioned survey which reports that MBA graduates received an average salary rise of 46 per cent immediately after graduation.