Working with a good tutor can make a tremendous difference in your college student’s success. Most colleges offer tutoring or academic support in some form. One commonly used form of student support is the use of a peer tutor. Peer tutors are students who have a strength in a subject area and work with students who are having some difficulty or need support. Occasionally, parents worry that their college student is working with another student and not with a professional tutor. They are concerned that the tutoring help will not be sufficient.
Although professional tutoring is very valuable, and may work best for some students in some subject areas, peer tutoring also has great advantages. As in any one-on-one tutoring situation, your student will receive individual attention and support for his academic needs. Some peer tutors may work with a student on several subjects, or the tutor may have expertise in one particular area.
There are unique advantages of peer tutors, and parents need to be aware that peer tutoring is used by many colleges because it is effective, not because it is “cheap labor”. Peer tutors are usually trained, some are trained extensively. They are not teachers with professional qualifications, they do not give grades or control curriculum, however they do have expertise in their subject area and some expertise in how to help other students succeed in that subject.