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Except that it's not. You can only ask $1000 for SAT tutoring if you have the name and track record to back it up. People pay $1000/h because their child gettin

by tinco 13y ago

Except that it's not. You can only ask $1000 for SAT tutoring if you have the name and track record to back it up. People pay $1000/h because their child getting into some school is worth it to them. This is not at all like $1000 bottled whine. It is much harder to measure fine wine vs measuring wether your kid makes it to the college or not. Ofcourse, you can go for the short term and bluff that your tutoring is worth it by asking the price without actually having that record, but that might not last.

dmayle 13y ago
Ok, I'll bite... In the article it mentioned that the tutor in question had a greater than 90% success rate. What's the control group success rate? 95%? 85%? If I start an SAT tutoring group and manage to limit myself (let's say, through pricing) to a group that is already quite likely to succeed, than I have effectively priced myself into a track record. As long as the stats already look impressive, it should be relatively easy to ignore that part of the question, as long as I am not actively harming the chances of my students. After that, it becomes a question of the intangibles mentioned in the grandparent post: look, dress, body language, etc. I agree, however, that it's not like faking wine, but for the opposite reason. I would bet that it's much easier to uncover the wine fraud, since there will be some sort of paper trail, whereas there will never be a control group study between your SAT tutoring and no intervention at all.
rdtsc 13y ago
The problem is, will tutoring that costs $1000/hour be noticeably better than one costing $100/hour. I kind of doubt it. After that it is about presentation, marketing, ways to build trust. There a gray area maybe between scam artists and this. Some are offering these lessons some homeopathy treatments, blessed magnetic bracelets. Sometimes wealthy and rational don't always go together. And industry is always there ready to help those people part with their money. Yes, not any Joe Shmo (like me for example) can start selling $1000 bottles of wine or tutoring lessons for $10k/week.

by tinco 13y ago

dmayle 13y ago

Ok, I'll bite... In the article it mentioned that the tutor in question had a greater than 90% success rate. What's the control group success rate? 95%? 85%? If I start an SAT tutoring group and manage to limit myself (let's say, through pricing) to a group that is already quite likely to succeed, than I have effectively priced myself into a track record. As long as the stats already look impressive, it should be relatively easy to ignore that part of the question, as long as I am not actively harming the chances of my students. After that, it becomes a question of the intangibles mentioned in the grandparent post: look, dress, body language, etc. I agree, however, that it's not like faking wine, but for the opposite reason. I would bet that it's much easier to uncover the wine fraud, since there will be some sort of paper trail, whereas there will never be a control group study between your SAT tutoring and no intervention at all.

rdtsc 13y ago

The problem is, will tutoring that costs $1000/hour be noticeably better than one costing $100/hour. I kind of doubt it. After that it is about presentation, marketing, ways to build trust. There a gray area maybe between scam artists and this. Some are offering these lessons some homeopathy treatments, blessed magnetic bracelets. Sometimes wealthy and rational don't always go together. And industry is always there ready to help those people part with their money. Yes, not any Joe Shmo (like me for example) can start selling $1000 bottles of wine or tutoring lessons for $10k/week.