Start was great. Good resources online. My son went through the most relevant quickly. We were assigned a good tutor initially. After 10Hours, all of a sudden, we received notice our tutor was no longer working with Varsity. Things went downhill from then on. I sent several emails and it took 5 days for Chris, the account manager to reply as he was sick.We were stressed not having any tutor as the date for the SAT was quickly approaching. Chris at Varsity declined to provide a contact for the days he wasn't working because he said he is a sales guy and what sales guy would transition his accounts while away!!!! So it took another couple of days to be offered an alternative (1 week after the first one vanished). James, the new tutor wasn't as good, and didn't prepare for the class at all. Instead of looking up what had been done before, he spent a good portion of the time of the class to assess the work that had been done so far. (when he had access to all the notes and sessions but didn't bother to look). We decided not to proceed with James and to put the account in pause. We weren't told that the pause could only be made once and for 30 days max. We were notified hours before the deadline for an auto renewal and had to scramble to get a hold of someone to stop it and delete our account. We requested an exception to extend the pause the time for us to figure out what we wanted to do, to no avail, although all this situation was of their making. It could have been great but their poor communication and lack of customer attention undermined all the good impression we had at the start. It is a unfortunate. After posting my review here, Varsity Tutors to their credit refunded the last month (for which we really only had 2 sessions). It gives me hope that they do care and they are willing to correct their mistakes.. I am therefore updating my score accordingly. read more

I had a very frustrating experience with Varsity Tutors and would not recommend their service. I signed up for a $249/month plan that included a fixed number of tutoring hours. However, over multiple months, I was charged inconsistently significantly higher amounts above my plan monthly, resulting in $193.90 in additional, unexplained fees (Jan-Mar), plus an extra charge after cancellation in April. They never agreed to refund the extra charge and only gave me extra credit hours. The company claims these are "supplemental tutoring fees" for extra time, but I never requested or approved any additional hours. My child only attended scheduled sessions within the agreed timeframe. What's most concerning: There is no clear approval or control mechanism for "extra" time Tutors can apparently bill beyond scheduled sessions without client consent Charges are not transparently tracked in the user dashboard Customer support repeatedly gives scripted responses without resolving the issue I ended up canceling my subscription because of these unexplained charges, yet I was still billed again afterward. This billing model feels opaque and, frankly, misleading. At minimum, there should be explicit approval required before any additional billable time is added. read more

Update 2: They have refunded me all of my money (not just the erroneous amount for hours I was not notified I went over) for the tutoring which was unexpected and appreciated. They did this all in the same day. I was also informed that materials are not kept for very specific certification exams due to them changing frequently. I do understand that there are different FE exams (chemical, mechanical, environmental, etc.) and I am not all that knowledgeable in how often the examinations are changed but a preliminary search seems to indicate that it gets changed 6-8 years while the FE Reference handbook gets updated every 2-3 years or so. Other professional examinations that they have study material for seems to change more frequently. Perhaps the information from my search is wrong, but I do encourage Varsity Tutors to think about adding material for the FE in the future. I would be willing to donate a PDF of a practice test that I purchased for the Chemical FE in order to get this started. My experience with Varsity Tutors was a pleasant one overall. My tutor was knowledgeable and accommodating. The customer experience managers and other personnel are also very nice and accommodating. read more

They're a bunch crooks and thieves. The service quality is horrible. The website is impossible to setup. They're just running a subscription scam. Avoid this entirely and tell your friends. Shawn read more

I have serious concern regarding the sales practices. My daughter took SAT lessons from your company this summer. I believe the way sales team presented the service was misleading and did not accurately reflect the terms or costs involved. Specifically, I was charged for services I did not knowingly sign up for, and the information provided during the sales process was misrepresented. This has caused inconvenience and a loss of trust in your brand. The total I am charged extra is $1845! I have requested a refund but I feel cheated when I communicated my needs very clearly in the beginning itself. read more

Varsity tutors is TERRIBLE!!! Do not waste your time. I purchased tutoring for my son and they never delivered not did they try to resolve the issue. They are a total SCAM! read more

(1 out of 5 stars) Terrible experience with Varsity Tutors -- poor service and unfair billing We signed up with Varsity Tutors to help my daughter prepare for a class and test. The experience was disappointing from start to finish. First, her assigned tutor quit the company unexpectedly, and it took Varsity 10 days to reassign a new tutor. That was precious time wasted during an important preparation period. The biggest issue, however, was billing. We purchased one package for $639, which was supposed to include several hours of tutoring. Instead, Varsity kept charging our card again without permission, as if we had requested additional packages -- which we did not. When I called to cancel and request a refund, I was told the charges were non-refundable, even though no additional sessions were ever scheduled, used, or even touched. They insisted on keeping the money as a "credit for future use," which we have no intention of using. It's unacceptable that a company can keep charging customers for unused services and then refuse to refund them. Their billing and account management practices feel predatory, and the representatives seemed well-trained to deny refunds rather than solve problems. I would strongly warn others to be extremely cautious before signing up with Varsity Tutors. Make sure you understand exactly what they'll charge and how, because once they have your payment information, getting your money back is almost impossible. I will not us Varsity Tutors again and will ask my Credit Card issuer to dispute the charges. read more

Loved our tutor and she was great. However we experienced some scheduling issues over the holidays (both sides) and were charged for a few tutoring sessions. Reached out to varsity tutor's customer service to see if we could re-use the credits and were told that we couldn't. Not the answer I was expecting. So I can't recommend this place to anyone. But with that said. Loved our tutor and she was very nice to our daughter. read more

The worst tutoring site I've used so far. The tutors themselves seem to be experienced but explain concepts unbelievably slow. Money down the drain FAST. My first tutor was late, came prepared with the wrong subject material even though I've sent him information and PDFS prior. Overpriced, ineffective, confusing website, terrible customer service. read more

Worst experience I have ever had! I do not make it a habit to write negative reviews. therefore when I write one -- please heed my warning! The 1:1 tutor is a farce -- there was background noise so loud my daughter could not even hear and the tutor's voice was so heavily accented that my daughter could not understand a word. The link to the "instant tutoring" did not work and when you call for help -- the representative is in Costa Rica. Lastly, the sales techniques are extremely deceptive! I signed on for 4 hours-- never did they tell me it would be a monthly subscription! Until I called to complain about the multiple other things wrong with their company did I find out about the monthly subscription -- again --a service to which I had NEVER agreed! DO NOT USE THIS company! Stick with the classics, Kaplan, Princeton Review , there is even a new tutoring company backed by Mark Cuban from Shark Tank -- try that one. read more

I wish I would have found these reviews before I signed up. I was promised an online practice ACT exam. The instructor had the kids print off a bubble sheet for answers, and my daughter had to fill in her answers on paper. He said he would post the answer key and the kids would have to score themselves. That was Saturday. No answer key. I called Support and they have no idea. Their "tech" team is researching and it will take 72 hours and they will respond via email. They give instructions on how to navigate their website yet those options aren't available. I was sold that her ACT answers would be analyzed by her tutor and a customized tutoring program would be developed based on where she needs the help. Nope. This is a BS system. If I could quit and get my money back now, I would. VARSITY TUTORS IS A SCAM. read more

Varsity Tutors has been very good to help supplement my studies in College. When I have had an issue, they have been able resolve these issues and have gone above and beyond to give great customer service. Thank you, Varsity Tutors. read more

Update: Varsity Tutors contacted me and offered me a refund for the past two months. Even though I am still disappointed that we couldn't find a good tutor (reliable and committed), I am very happy with how Varsity Tutors reacted to my dissatisfaction. They called me to fully understand the situation, really listened to my perspective, and refunded the monthly fee, even though I never asked to be refunded. Again, their platform and customer service are great. I only have an issue with the reliability and quality of the tutors. I have updated my review to 3 starts to acknowledge their commitment to the customer. read more

These guys are predatory, be careful when you sign up. The tutoring and system were fine, but they will sign you up without telling you for a monthly plan - which in my case meant an additional $500! - and when you call them, they refuse to issue a refund (I'm sure it was buried in the terms of reference, but the person who sold me the plan did not tell me it was recurring....which is incredibly unethical. And then give you no ability to speak to anyone else to contest it. Absolutely criminal. (Final update: as expected, looking at the pattern with other complaints, they did refund me after my public complaint. But the question anyone reading this, and thinking about paying them your hard earned money should ask: why, when I called, did their agent insist that is was IMPOSSIBLE to refund me....she literally told me that if I called back the next agent would refuse to refund me. So they're playing a game with us - if you add a bad review THEN they'll refund you, but they assume a small percentage of people will do that, and it will then keep them quiet so the scam can continue. If they really care about customer service, as their response to me wants to advertise to the world that they do, then they need to do two things: 1) ensure that sales agent ask people to explicitly authorize recurring charges up front, and/or 2) make it possible for their customer service team to issue refunds when they take a a call. Otherwise, don't trust them, as they are just manipulating people) read more

Beware of uncanceled memberships!! Get it in writing!! The tutoring for my son was good/ok. But I called to cancel my membership in June 2025 when summer started (I am 100% certain of this phone call because the monthly fee is very high) and just realized (it's now November) that they never canceled my membership and have been charging my card, unauthorized, for 5 months. Yes I realize I should've noticed sooner but the response from them was inexcusable. They told me they had no record of my phone call/cancellation (how convenient) so it never happened and they would refund absolutely nothing. They couldn't have cared less and were pretty prepared with what to say to me so I'm not the first person to fall into this trap. When I did some digging this is a repetitive scenario and clearly how they have made money off of people no longer receiving services. They've been reported for this practice so buyer beware! Make sure you get a confirmation in writing that they've cancelled your "membership". Thankfully I was able to report them for fraud with my credit card and they are helping dispute these swindlers. read more

After posting my original review, the refund team reached out promptly and issued a refund for the two months in question, which I appreciated. I also want to acknowledge that our experience with the tutor itself was very positive. My son looked forward to the sessions with his tutor. That said, I still have concerns about the subscription model. I originally thought I was purchasing a specific number of tutoring sessions--not entering into a long-term contract. The terms of service indicate a subscription commitment ranging from 3 to 24 months, but this isn't clearly reflected in the user profile or dashboard, nor is there any way for users to easily verify the length of their contract, modify it, or ensure it doesn't auto-renew. It's far too easy to get locked into ongoing charges without realizing it, especially once your sessions are completed. Users should be extremely careful about what they're being placed into at sign-up to avoid a subscription they may not want. Additionally, I believe their customer service should be empowered to address these concerns earlier in the process. It shouldn't take a public review to get a reasonable resolution--my initial interactions felt dismissive and unhelpful. All in all, this could be a good service if the trust were there. Unfortunately, for me, that trust has been broken. read more

*Buyer Beware. Horrible and unprofessional experience. I have been a customer of VT for 5 years. I have in wiring from VT that my pre-paid tutoring hours will not expire. My hours disappeared from my account without notification. I called and brought it to their attention and they said they would correct it and let me know once fixed. I never heard back from them so I called once again. The same person picked up and told me that only part of my tutoring hours would be restored, and did not give any further information. I asked for a manager to call me back and the representative became rude. I explained that I have in writing that my pre-paid hours would not expire and all she said was "I understand your frustration". Taking someone's hours away is not legal. I have it in writing that my hours will not expire. Please put them back! read more

I was looking for a platform to connect with an online or in-person tutor. I left my number and immediately, a sales rep called. She spent 17 minutes trying to ask me questions about my courses so that she could sell me what would feel like a more personalized service. A lot of what she was saying was very repetitive and felt too scammy. I just wanted to get connected with a tutor ASAP. I ended up using a different platform that was more affordable and also connected me with an in-person tutor. read more

I signed up with Varsity Tutors, because my son wanted to retake the SAT and see if he could improve his score. We paid for the 8 hours of personal tutoring time. The tutor was excellent. He engaged with my son and they worked through the plan. We knew we only needed this for the SAT and he only needed it for 1 month. While they had mentioned all the additional content available, my son quickly realized that the materials were not as useful. Then today, I saw that they had charged me for another month of 8 hours of tutoring. Even my son's tutor was confused. I called and was very clear that I needed my account cancelled (you cannot do this on the website) and I wanted a refund for the pending charge for the coming month. After the gentleman on the phone kept repeating questions to ask if there was other things that my son may need. i.e he asked if he had been accepted in to college. He has. He started contemplating on the phone if there were other ways my son was going to need help. He does not. I would repeat my request and he would say that he would help me, but then just kept going on about why I would want to keep the account. I admit I may have lost my cool on him at this point. He did eventually get the point. He said they would cancel my account, but that since the billing period had already passed, he could not help me with a refund. I mentioned that I have never encountered any service which would not refund 1 day after a charge, when it has not even posted yet. This was a minimum of reasonable service. He apologized but said there was nothing he could do. So, I called my bank. As soon as it posts, they will stop the payment. So glad this is my last one. The tutors can be very good. I do believe it helped my kid. Get a pre-paid debit card. Load it up with how much you will need and use that. When you are done, the card will be empty and you won't have to worry. read more

The tutor we had did not have good English. We signed for a certain amount of time for a month. We went over 1 1/2 hours and charged $300 for the extra 1 1/2 hours. They automatically charged us for the next month that I didn't authorize and will not refund all my money. I feel like we have been played. I would not recommend this company to anyone. read more

There is no way to cancel subscription on the website, and I am now being charged upwards of $400 for a month of service that I will not be using whatsoever. The no refund policy is a scam. I am waiting to hear back from management, but losing that significant of an amount of money is outright insane. It seems to me that they purposefully make it difficult to cancel a subscription in order to make money. read more

Scheduling is absolutely horrific. Since we registered and paid for sessions, my daughter has been "rescheduled" three times and has yet to meet with a tutor. I have spoken with two tutors via email and the app, and everything was all set to meet. Yesterday, she had a tutoring session, logged on for her meeting, and waited but the tutor never showed up! I keep getting emails saying that the tutoring sessions have been canceled and my daughter is being rematched. She is taking the SAT in 3 days and has not met with a single tutor. Do not use this company. It is a nightmare! read more

This company is absolutely terrible. They charged my credit card excessively and tried to schedule as many hours as possible to charge me even more. And despite me calling them and canceling TWO times. I still got charged for an additional month. Even though their price is already very high! I sent screenshots and videos to prove my case and STILL they only gave a PARTIAL refund. They don't have a manager to talk to or give a refund and the poor associates are just left hanging apologizing for money hungry system that is taking advantage of parents trying to support their kids. I DO NOT RECOMMEND AT ALL. BE AWARE! read more

When I signed up with Varsity Tutors, I was explicitly promised that a tutor would be matched to my daughter based on specific criteria I provided. I agreed to try the service for one month only--four sessions total--and made it clear, multiple times, that I did not want a renewing subscription. The tutor they assigned was a poor fit, and after just two sessions, my daughter chose not to continue. I accepted the loss of the remaining sessions and walked away, under the assumption that I had fulfilled my one-month agreement. Not once did anyone follow up for feedback or offer support--despite assurances that they would. Three months later, I discovered that Varsity Tutors had enrolled me in an an ongoing subscription against my request and had continued charging my card for services we were not using and never agreed to. When I contacted them to cancel and request a refund, I was met with a flat refusal. This is not just bad customer service--it's predatory business practice, bordering on fraud. I expect a full refund for the unauthorized charges and immediate confirmation that my account is canceled. At the very least, Varsity Tutors should uphold the standards and integrity they claim to represent. read more

Varsity tutors is fraudulent! Of course when you first inquire about the service the representatives are responsive... After I gave them my credit card, everything changed... trying to get a hold of anyone takes an hour. You will be on hold and once you get hold of someone know one knows anything. I cancelled the service as it wasn't helpful and after being promised no charges would continue after the termination of service, I get charged 4 days later. This company has been nothing but a headache for me and my family. Don't waste your time your child will suffer. The website is child's play it is not interactive and you can't manage anything from the website. read more

This company needs to improve how they handle their hiring. My son would often wait 30 minutes for the tutor to join a scheduled session, and by then, he rarely got a full hour of instruction. He felt like he wasn't able to make a strong connection with the tutor. We paid for about six months but only ended up using two. When I called to cancel the subscription and request a refund, they told me I couldn't get my money back, but they could hold the remaining sessions for when my son needed them. Faced with no other options, I agreed. Now, when we try to use the session, I've been told it's expired! I'm extremely frustrated with this company. They stole my money, and I can't get the service I paid for. Now, my son's hours have expired? This is a horrible experience. Don't use them; it's not worth it. Spend your money elsewhere. read more

I would not recommend varsity tutors. I son was taking their online ACT class for few months. The last session was in May and they said all future session will be cancelled and it won't charge the credit card. But today I found they were still keep charging $529 from my account for 2 months. Called them and asked for refund but they are not refunding it because I had to request them through phone. Stay away from these scumbags. read more

Awful. There is no way to cancel your membership on the website. I cancelled my sessions with my tutor, but I guess that wasn't enough to cancel the membership so they charged me to over a year without my knowledge. Refused to give me a refund or future credit. Thieves. read more

Varsity tutors reached out and issued a refund for the months I did not use their services.

Things were going fine and then our tutor had some scheduling conflicts so we had to reschedule a couple sessions. What we didn't know was that you can ONLY use your hours during that given cycle. So we made up the hours but they were done during the next cycle which resulted in additional charges and no credit for the unused hours in the previous cycle. I was told nothing could be done. When I inquired as to why the tutor didn't inform me of this, I was told the tutors don't know these details. There was no offer of crediting back the hours even as a one time misunderstanding-now you know kinda thing. So they lost my family as customers. Do your self a favor a find a local tutor. Unless you're going to use all the extras this is not worth the cost. read more

DON'T DO IT!!! SCAM! They will take your money make it sound amazing where you're in hopes to help your child and then there is no help they just tell you that you get this and that and it's only 379 little do you know they're going to be charging you that every single month And let me tell you we went a half a month already and nobody has contacted her except for the first time when she was supposed to have a tutor the person canceled on her the second time they sent a link that did not even work. Everybody had her phone number nobody contacted her they just basically were letting her fail but yet they want to collect your money. Like I said, it's a scam don't do it! They will not refund your money and they will just keep charging you monthly. They did happen to cancel my membership but that's all you're getting is they cancel it so you don't have to be charged anymore but don't think you'll ever see a penny of your money back! Complete scam nobody helps they send you a link with nobody on the other side to help like I said don't do it! I would give it zero stars if I could read more

Please be careful if you use varsity tutors learning program. They are NOT transparent. They sign you up for a renewal subscription. We canceled with our tutor and was then billed an additional month. When we called, we were told by a rude woman that she is a "senior" such and such title and there's no way for a refund since we should have canceled yesterday. Scam in my opinion. read more

Update: Varsity Tutors did end up refunding me for the overcharges as well as the last month of hours I paid for since I wouldn't be using them. I was never told why the mixup happened or why I was sent the wrong information (I question how often this happens to other people that don't notice) but I do appreciate having my money returned to me. Original: I would like to echo other comments explaining what a fraudulent scam this company is. I signed up for college tutoring in November of 2023. After speaking to a representative (Becky) on the phone, clearly explaining I was a college student and what I needed help in, she emailed me to follow up with 3 recommended personal membership plans for me, depending on how many hours of tutoring I wanted. I chose to sign up for 4 hours a month, which stated it was a $329 month to month cost as shown in the attached pictures. Instead, I've been getting charged an extra 40 dollars for the last 5 months and am now being told that my plan is $369 because I'm a college student. After explaining that this goes against the own suggested plans they sent me and that I signed up for, Varsity Tutors accused me of screenshotting the general standard pricing from their website to look like I was told a lower price, despite the fact that this information came from them and was sent directly to my email. The only reason I finally noticed was because I had to cancel my account after learning that prepaid tutoring hours do not roll over into the next month. If you have any hours remaining that you already paid for, they will be removed from your account. You will receive no credit, and you will definitely not receive any refund. This is hilarious given how much Varsity Tutors tries to say that they have flexible policies - if you are ever sick, out of town, or unable to meet for any of your hours, you're out of luck. They take them out of your account just so they can charge you again with a new set of hours. This obviously isn't told to you when you sign up on the phone, and is obviously written in the smallest font and listed at the very bottom of the FAQ so it's as hard as possible to find. After emailing back and forth all day and speaking to multiple people on the phone who could give me no answers, I now have to schedule a 30 minute phone call with a representative to see if I'll get any sort of refund for the hundreds of dollars they've been fraudulently overcharging me for. Otherwise I'll have to go and dispute each month of charges with my credit card. I cannot emphasize enough - please stay away from this predatory company. After going through the hellish experience of quite literally having to beg whoever I was talking to on the phone today to just CANCEL my membership, do not pause or downgrade or change it, just completely cancel it so I can stop dealing with this (17 minutes that I'll never get back of saying over and over that I just want to cancel) - I wish I never signed up in the first place. read more

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At first when I signed up my daughter for VT, it was good. But then later down the road, half the time we either ended up changing tutors or they did. DO NOT go with Varsity Tutors. Their main issue is with the billing. On the sight, it says you can call OR email to make adjustments. I've emailed several times to cancel and nothing! I finally called and it was done. It should of been cancelled after the first email! Not months later and STILL being charged. Now I'm currently disputing it with my credit card company as to why they still charged after called to put a stop on it... read more

Tutor had such a heavy accent you could hardly understand her. Her approach was to give my son more homework to do rather than actually helping him complete the mountain he already had. Charged our credit card early and told us that's what we signed up for which was absolutely not true. At a hundred dollars an hour who can afford that? Stay as far away from these creeps as you can. read more

effectively stole $369 from me because I cancelled two days after their billing date. a guy named Mark stated "we don't give refunds" then told me "it's all explained in the terms of service." this is a scam. this is theft. they don't prorate and are fully happy to keep every nickel and hose the customer. it was very clear, they don't care about the customer, just the money. poor business to hide behind details to enrich themselves. SCAM! AVOID! BUYER BEWARE!! read more

I told them from the start that I was going to go with them for a month while exploring other options. A month in, I found a tutoring solution better suited for my needs and looked to cancel my subscription and get a refund for a full month of tutoring services charged that I had not received. They refused to refund and referenced a policy that was poorly communicated. read more

After posting this review, Varsity contacted me and issued the credit back to my account, so I've given them 3 starts for the effort to make it right. However, I would hope it doesn't take a customer to publicly post their displeasure with customer service to make things right. read more

Varsity Tutors - Private Tutors Near Me

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My son was enrolled through Varsity Tutors for ACT prep for two months twice per week with extra assignments in between sessions. My son is. 4.5 AP track student and his score was less than acceptable for $1000. I would not recommend Varsity Tutors for ACT or SAT preparation to anyone. There is no accountability, tracking, or monitoring of the progress of the student or the quality of the contracted tutor. I would highly recommend not going through a private tutor than this company. read more

We got a good tutor. The first one was not good, but the second was great. THEY AUTO-RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP WITHOUT TELLING YOU. And they won't issue a refund. If you wish to stop using their service, don't assume the 6-month contract is over. They will keep charging you, and you can't cancel on their website. These are just terrible business practices. --- I am updating my review. After my post, a rep contacted me and refunded me July. We enjoyed the service with their tutor my son had, but they really need to change their business practices. read more