Listen to a conversation between a student and a counselor in the student employment office.

C: So tell me a little bit about yourself.

S: Well, I'm in my third year, and my major course of study is physics.

C: How are your grades?

S: Oh, I always get good grades in physics. Anyway. I realize that I'm always helping people with their physics questions, so being a tutor might be a good fit. Plus, I'm not really happy with my part-time job.

C: Why not? S: It's off campus in a shoe store at the mall. It pays pretty well, but I spend almost as much time commuting as I do working.

C: Well for the tutoring job, everything happens right here on campus. You seem to meet the main criteria. Your grades are good. You're an upperclassman.

S: How much does it pay?

C: $10 an hour.

S: Does the student pay me directly?

C: No, the university sends you a check.

S: Okay, how do I apply? C: Actually, it's all done online, but we do evaluate the applications here, and if everything's in order, your name will be entered into our database of tutors. S: I see. So then students who want help just search the database.

C: I suppose that might happen, but the more usual way is for their instructor or another professor, their Academic Advisor, to find you in the database and put you in touch with a student who missed several classes or whose physics background isn't very strong. Typically it's a first-year student.

S: Oh, so it would be like reviewing fundamental stuff, like basic laws of physics, electricity, gravity, optics, that kind of thing.

C: Most likely. Now there are basically two formats. You can work one on one with the same person throughout the term, or you can work on demand in our assisted study hall program. Assisted study hall meets every weeknight for three hours. If you opt for the latter arrangement, you're essentially available to any student who walks in with a physics-related question.

S: Oh, yeah, I used that program when I was a first-year student. I didn't realize the tutors were undergraduates. I just assumed they were like graduate students or really young professors. They really knew their stuff.

C: Now, just a couple of things to keep in mind, you cannot tutor classmates, even if you don't know them well. S: Okay. C: And there's nothing allowed during exam periods. All tutoring has to be completed before then.

S: Oh, because… C: Well, actually, it's for the sake of the tutors. When will you study if all your time is being spent helping others? Students tend to want to monopolize their tutors before exams.