Would it be wrong to classify semi-paid tutoring as volunteer work?

[JulianaW]

I really love to teach and so I have been involved for awhile now with a tutoring club. I guess our set-up is a bit nontraditional because we do both paid and free tutoring.

But anyway, my question is regarding what to classify this as. It is definitely a leadership experience since I have had a major role in getting us started and organizing the club. But is it fair to also list this as community service? My only concern is that while many of my students are tutored for free, some of them do pay me.

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[Frazier]

I really love to teach and so I have been involved for awhile now with a tutoring club. I guess our set-up is a bit nontraditional because we do both paid and free tutoring. Our general rate is set pretty low, $10/hr but for students/families that can't afford this we tutor for free. Right now I would say that about 1/2 our students are tutored for free.

I am president of the club so I have to ability to change our set-up if I wanted. And really, none of us mind tutoring for free... it's just that when we advertised our services for free we got a lot of students who showed up once just to do some test cramming and never came back. So we thought that by setting our rate fairly low, we could still keep costs from being prohibitive for most students but also encourage people to take their sessions seriously (since they pay us a little something for it).

But anyway, my question is regarding what to classify this as. It is definitely a leadership experience since I have had a major role in getting us started and organizing the club. But is it fair to also list this as community service? My only concern is that while many of my students are tutored for free, some of them do pay me.

There is a very simple equality formula for this sort of complex problem...

Paid = employment
Unpaid/no course credit = volunteer

Obviously you satisfy both with your current gig.

 

[JulianaW]

Paid = employment
Unpaid/no course credit = volunteer

Obviously you satisfy both with your current gig.

Right, but it's not fishy to list as both? I'm not sure what the etiquette is for listing activities that don't fall into one specific category.

 

[Snowsquall]

Just put the club's name for both category, but different titles and descriptions. Done.

 

[motomed]

why run the risk of pissing someone off just to squeeze in a volunteer experience? you get paid, list it as such and explain it much the same way you just did. you'll still get plenty of credit for the overall experience and you won't run the risk of overshadowing that by trying to claim its volunteer work when some may not see it as such.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Just put the club's name for both category, but different titles and descriptions. Done.

Yeah thats sketchy.

Pick one category and explain it just the way you did to us. No one really cares about the categories anyway - they're just there.

But do not put it on their twice when its the same activity. Thats going to look like resume padding.

 

[Adaggiote]

Of Course not. You ARE volunteering, but getting paid...

win/win sitch.

 

[NickNaylor]

Yes.

 

[markelmarcel]

Just put the club's name for both category, but different titles and descriptions. Done.

You could think of it this way:

You don't get paid to be the club's president- so that could be considered volunteering/community service/etc

You do get paid for tutoring (for the most part) - so that could be considered employment.

But, I do think you should just list it as one or the other.

 

[Barcu]

Yeah thats sketchy.

Pick one category and explain it just the way you did to us. No one really cares about the categories anyway - they're just there.

But do not put it on their twice when its the same activity. Thats going to look like resume padding.

I agree with this.

Put it in one place and explain it. Shouldn't be a problem.

 

[LizzyM]

AMCAS application has a pull-down menu to describe activities. In some cases, an activity can fit into more than one category. In this case, I'd recommend using the "Teaching/Tutoring" category which covers it. If you spent more than an average of 1 hour per week in the organization and leadership role, you could tease that out and use the Leadership category to describe your role in the organization.