All Our Tutors Are Ivy League Grads. That's Our Promise.
THE PREMIER TUTORING SERVICE IN LA & NYC
Call us today: (818) 917-9537, (646) 801-8401.
THE CREME DE LA CREME
We are the only tutoring service in Los Angeles and New York City where every one of our tutors, no exception, graduated from one or more Ivy League Universities (Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Penn, Cornell & Dartmouth + Stanford, MIT, Cambridge and Oxford)
Our clients include the children of Entertainment Professionals, A-List Individuals, Athletes and Fortune 500 CEOs, as well as everyday families from every walk of life whose children attend the finest institutions in LA and NYC.
At any given time, we service the needs of select families each in New York City and Los Angeles. This allows us to provide individualized attention to your personal needs and fulfill your every expectation.
When you call, you always get to speak to our co-founder Alex. No out-of-state corporate headquarters and no marketing call centers so you can always expect personalized attention and a listening ear.
We maintain a select roster of highly dedicated and supremely well-qualified tutors who provide personalized and tailored service for all of our families. Most of our tutors have worked with us for years.
A FAMILY-OWNED ENTERPRISE
We care about your success and run our business with a big heart.
Alex Lafond
Owner & Program Director
Alex co-founded and runs, operates and manages Ivy Tutors to this day, keeping a discriminating hand in its day-to-day activities, while focusing on implementing his vision for the long-term direction and success of the company. A serial entrepreneur, Alex also started and operates several other successful businesses, including an innovative company that converts and textifies textbooks for blind students at institutions of higher education that include Yale, Cornell, Columbia, and the University of Chicago.
A graduate of Yale with distinction and highest honors who also completed advanced graduate coursework in the Yale School of Public Health, Yale School of Drama and at Harvard, Alex has over a decade of private, one-on-one tutoring experience.
Alex personally handpicks and selects every one of Ivy Tutors' select roster of expert tutor-instructors. Each one of these tutors carries his personal stamp of approval and upholds his highest standards of excellence, professionalism, and interpersonal qualities.
Alex's industry recognitions include writing a book on mastering the SAT and scoring perfect 800 scores, which has become an Amazon Bestseller downloaded in countries around the world that have included the U.S., the U.K., Canada, France & Japan, and having been selected to work as a published Contributor to the Insider's Guide to the Colleges published by St. Martin's Griffin. Alex also is a Writer, Editor and Contributor for the upcoming 11th Edition of ExamKrackers' suite of Test Prep material for the NEW MCAT 2016.
Alex remains involved and invested in the success of every student at Ivy Tutors, firmly believing that all the students he gets to assist deserve to thrive in success together.
Huguette Lafond
Office Manager
Huguette takes care of the day-to-day business at Ivy Tutors and makes sure operations are running smoothly. Ivy's tutors know that when they need something or, say, are confused about submitting their tutoring hours or anything of the like, Huguette will help them at every step of the way!
Hailing from a family and long lineage of educators, with over two dozen aunts and cousins involved in education in a plethora of different ways - High School Teachers and Principals, Nuns who have taught children in Elementary School, College Professors, and Education innovators - Huguette has taught in various settings for over 40 years, including as a homeschool instructor, substitute High School teacher, and on-set studio teacher.
One of Huguette's proudest accomplishments is that she successfully home-schooled her son Alex to achieve the highest heights of academic success, including being admitted to several Ivy League institutions that included Yale and Princeton (as well as other elite colleges like Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Vassar, and a dozen other colleges).
As a professional designer working for celebrities including Celine Dion, she has taught Home Design and Floral Design on television and been called the Martha Stewart of Canada, as well as has been featured in international magazines & publications and on Network, Cable and International television channels that have included Showtime, Global, and the Canadian Broadcasting Company.
Huguette has taught, tutored and coached professional children actors in Montreal, Palm Beach, and Los Angeles. She currently resides in beautiful Thousand Oaks and enjoys soaking in the California sunshine and hiking in Malibu.
EXCLUSIVE SERVICES FOR ELITE FAMILIES
We serve as your personal concierge for all of your academic and tutoring needs.
Homework Help
Our Most Popular Service
Some of our tutors are especially trained and qualified to assist your child across all curricular subjects, including but not limited to the Sciences, Math, English and History, and a Foreign Language. Many of these tutors work with our families for years, as early as the first year of Middle School and until the end of a student's High School career or even beyond in college.
Subject Tutoring K-12
Every Subject of Instruction Available
We have expert tutors for every subject of instruction, up to and including at the AP Level, and for popular subjects such as AP Physics, AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Computer Science, AP Government, AP English, AP Statistics as well as every other AP subject. Our instructors can also teach and tutor Spanish, French, Latin and Chinese.
Executive Functioning
Highly Individualized & Personalized
Some of our tutors are expertly trained to work with students with special needs or learning differences, whether ADD/ADHD, dyslexia, disgraphia, or something else. In some cases, your child may simply benefit from our suite of "Executive Functioning" services comprised of study techniques, time management, homework help, and test prep tips.
College Counseling & Essay Specialists
Assistance with Every Step of the College Application Process
We are not traditional college counselors. We can help with every step of the application process (starting in 9th grade by putting a plan of action together or in 11th grade when coming up with a college list), which Alex, our co-founder, personally consults with families for on a select case-by-case basis. Our expert and experienced college application specialists assist students with writing their Personal Statement and College Application Secondary Essays, from the inception of an idea to outlining and multiple drafts. Our Admissions Specialists are all successful Ivy League graduates themselves.
SAT/ACT/ISEE/SSAT Standardized Test Prep
Helping You Achieving Ivy League-Worthy High Scores
Our Test Prep instructors are the best, bar none. They have taught the SAT and ACT for years, and are expertly trained to teach the new (2016) iterations of both tests. They will meet with your child privately for as long as needed. A typical course of Test Prep lasts 3 to 6 months, though we occasionally work with highly motivated students who want to prep full-time (every day) over a month, either during the Winter or Summer break. For the SSAT/ISEE, our students have achieved high scores that have gotten them admitted to elite prep schools in both the LA and New York City areas.
Home-Schooling & Independent Study
For Non-Traditional, Gifted and High-Achieving Students
We can assist you with finding and applying to the right home-school program for your child's specific and individual needs. Whether a gifted child looking to be challenged beyond the confines of a classroom or because he or she is a professional athlete or working actor, we will assist you with every step of the process. Then, we can put together a team of expert tutor-instructors (specifically experienced with home-schooling students) who can meet daily with your child and assist them with their assignments, including subject teaching as needed, following a schedule at your convenience.
TV/Film On-Set Tutoring
Your Personal Studio Teacher
The production company will always provide you a studio instructor. But many families elect to have one or several additional instructors who are especially qualified to teach your child specific or advanced subjects. They can meet on-set, provided they get pre-approval from the Unit Production Manager, or at your home when your child is off-set.
International
Tutoring
An Exclusive Service
We have matched expert instructors (usually with advanced Master's or PhD Degrees and multiple years of personalized one-on-one teaching experience) with traveling families around the globe, including the children of A-listers, Royalty, diplomats, and high net worth individuals. Call us today to inquire about this unique service we proudly offer.
THE BEST IN THE WEST AND EAST
We strive to assist you in academic success in all ways and always.
LOS ANGELES
City of Angels
We started our business in L.A. before expanding to New York City. We are still based in L.A. and are always willing, available and happy to meet anytime with prospective families and the families of students we currently assist.
Our students attend such fine institutions as Harvard-Westlake (We assist more students at Harvard-Westlake than any other School!), Oaks Christian, Buckley, Windward, Marlborough, Brentwood, Crossroads, Viewpoint, Campbell Hall, Milken, New Community Jewish High School, Marlborough, Notre Dame, St. Matthews, Oak Park Independent School, Sierra Canyon, Le Lycée Français, Berkeley Hall, Crespi, Wildwood, Pilgrim, New Roads, Crespi Carmelite, and Sierra Canyon.
Our tutors are familiar with the specific curricula used at each School. You can rest assured that our tutors adapt their services not only to the subject matter at hand, but to the specific expectations of their classroom instructors. They also provide techniques to help your child excel on their AP examinations.
NEW YORK CITY
The Big Apple
Because all of our tutors attended Ivy League institutions, the proximity of NYC to these Schools allows us to source and recruit expert instructors who have been with us in many cases for years.
The students we currently tutor attend such elite private Schools as Riverdale, Dalton, Columbia Prep, Collegiate, Chapin, Browning, Brearley, Trinity, and Horace Mann.
Many of our tutors are current or former instructors at these very Schools. Some of our tutors attended the Schools themselves before graduating from elite Ivy League institutions. Others were schooled at Preparatory Boarding Schools (Andover, Exeter, Deerfield, Choate, etc.)
We realize the stakes for academics in New York City are high. We can quell some of the anxieties you may be experiencing by matching you with an expert instructor who will provide the tools your child needs to excel and get admitted to the colleges of their choice.
WE HAVE YOUR BACK
We take pride in fulfilling your every need and surpassing your highest expectations.
Q: Is your tutoring private, one-on-one, in home?
A: Yes. All of our tutors meet with your child at your residence, typically after School hours on weekdays and/or on weekends. All of our tutoring, no exception, is private, one-on-one, in home, including for OUR homeschooled students. Occasionally and with parental permission, if it is more convenient for you, tutoring can be arranged at a tertiary location such as your child's School library.
Q: What qualifications do your tutors possess?
A: All of our tutors, no exception, attended and graduated from one or more Ivy League institutions (a.k.a. Yale, Harvard, Princeton, etc.) They have multiple years of tutoring experience, possess one or multiple advanced degrees, are experienced full-time college professors or high school instructors, or they may even have either attended or taught at the High or Middle School your child attends.
Q: How do you match a tutor to my child?
A: We match based on subject expertise, mutual availability of student and tutor, personal and extracurricular interests, teaching needs and personalities, amongst many different factors.
Q: How do you find your tutors?
A: All of our tutors have been personally handpicked by our co-founder Alex and go through a rigorous vetting process. All of our tutors come to us on a referral basis, oftentimes recommended by current and former tutor-instructors, and we pursue outreach to Ivy League universities to hire instructors who recently obtained their Graduate degrees. Many of our tutors have been working with us for years.
Q: How can you guarantee you have the best tutors in LA and New York City?
A: We believe there are three main reasons that we do: (1) All of our tutors attended Ivy League institutions and have multiple years of not only teaching, but specifically tutoring experience; (2) Cognizant of the fact that our tutors are the most qualified, we pay our instructors more than any other tutoring service and match them constantly with new families and students so they never think to leave us; and (3) we only take on tutors who espouse and apply our vision of quality service, outstanding teaching, and dedicated attention for the elite families that we serve.
Q: How long have you been in business?
A: We are entering our sixth year under the moniker Ivy Tutors. Individually, Alex and Huguette have, respectively, 10 and 40 years of tutoring, teaching, business and entrepreneurship experience, and they come from a family of educators, including College Professors, High School teachers, and education innovators. Our tutors all have several years of experience; their ages range from mid-20s thru their 30s and beyond, while some of our tutor-instructors are even full-time college professors.
Q: Do you tutor X advanced and/or rare subject?
A: As a matter of fact, we do! Do not think a subject for one second that any given subject may be too hard to come by and that we cannot assist you. We can and we will. We have assigned tutors to families who required, as just a few examples, instruction in the following subjects: Arabic, Chinese, College Level and AP Computer Science, Quantum Physics, and numerous others. If the field of study exists, chances are we have a tutor who can teach it!
Q: I want Alex himself to tutor my child. Is that possible?
A: Most of Alex's time is consumed with meeting privately with families for college counseling and home-schooling consults, training our select roster of tutor-instructors, and developing new and innovative curricula and textbooks for resale and for use by our tutors. Every once in a while Alex will take on a handful of students for tutoring. Alex's hourly rate, starting at $300/hour and increasing on a sliding scale depending on the difficulty and level of the subject taught, is significantly higher than the rates our Ivy League-educated tutors charge, which is why most families elect instead to get tutored by one of our expert Ivy League-educated instructors.
Q: Why don't you have a storefront walk-in office?
A: Because we aren't trying to compete with the Kaplan's, Princeton Review's and C2 Education's of this world. The services we provide are different: personalized, highly individualized, and exclusive. We realize the families whose academic needs we service have the highest expectations, which it is our every goal we can fulfill. We are a small, family-owned company with a big heart, and despite having expanded drastically in our reach and the number of families we service over the last five years, we still seek to provide the highest quality of service for each and everyone one of the families we assist.
Q: Is there a minimum tutoring session length?
A: Yes. All sessions scheduled are always a minimum of 1.5 hour (90 minutes) for advanced High School (11th and 12th grade) and a minimum of 2.0 hours for all Standardized Test Prep students (SAT/ACT and also ISEE/SSAT). Students in grades K-10 can meet for a minimum of 1.0 hour, but we do recommend and encourage 1.5 hour sessions starting in the 9th grade.
Q: Do you offer hours packages and must I prepay?
A: No. All the tutoring charged is billed by the hour, as you go. We never pre-charge; instead we charge your Credit Card on file every two weeks, after the tutoring has been rendered. You are also free to: (1) cancel anytime; (2) add or remove hours; and (3) in the highly unlikely and unusual event that you are not satisfied with your tutor, elect to meet with a different instructor handpicked by us. We work on an honor system built on trust. However, a Credit Card must be provided to both reserve the tutor's time and before a first session is scheduled. We do not accept Checks or Cash. All payment occurs through us so our tutors enjoy the convenience of solely focusing on providing the best teaching and tutoring possible to your child.
Q: What is your current hourly tutoring fee?
A: Our rates are competitive with the market for premium private one-on-one tutoring in L.A. and N.Y.C. They take into account the fact that our tutor-instructors are the most qualified and experienced, and that all instructors on our roster, without exception, have attended one or more Ivy League institutions. Some of our instructors charge a higher rate if they hold advanced educational credentials (e.g. PhD, M.D., J.D.), are graduates of multiple Ivy League institutions, and/or tutor esoteric, hard-to-come-by, or highly advanced academic subjects. Call us today to inquire about the specific tutoring rate for the subject, level, and grade year of your child.
Q: I want to pay cash to the tutor directly. Can I do that?
A: Unfortunately, that's not possible. Our tutors enjoy that they can solely focus on teaching, whereas we at the office take care of all the administrative details, including payment.
Q: Do you have a cancellation policy?
A: We have a 24-hour cancellation policy that we strictly maintain and enforce: Any tutoring cancelled by a family or a student under 24 hours, or any "no-shows", result in a full charge at the current agreed-upon corresponding tutoring rate for the duration of the time scheduled. Our tutors are busy professionals who must plan ahead and block out time to meet with their students, hence last-minute cancellations cause them to not be able to see another deserving student, and as a result we had to enforce this policy starting several years ago.
Q: Do you prep students for the new (2016) SAT?
A: Yes! Our tutors are specifically trained to teach the new SAT. We just got our first results back from the March 2016 examination of the SAT, and our students did outstandingly. We make no promises, ever, but our students do extremely well on standardized tests, routinely surpass their own expectations, and get into the colleges of their choice.
Q: I already have a private college counselor. Why do I need you?
A: We supplement, complement, and polish the work of your private college counselor. Most private and experienced private college counselors can help you come up with a college list. We will match you with a writing specialist whose sole focus is to help your child complete all of their college applications and application essays, supplements, and personal statement. Our expert college specialists can come in at any step of the college application process, helping with anything from brainstorming possible statement ideas specific to each college your child will be applying to assisting on multiple drafts and essay polishes.
Q: Where have your students gotten into colleges?
A: Virtually all Top 10, Top 20, and Top 50 U.S. institutions, including all of the UC's, Private Liberal Arts Colleges across the nation, State Universities, and of course all of the Ivy League Universities: Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Brown, Cornell, UPenn, Dartmouth, as well as MIT, Stanford, UCBerkeley and others.
Q: I'm still not convinced. What can you do to win me over?
A: Call us! You will always get to speak with Alex directly. We want to put your mind at ease. We are proud of the service we have created and continue to personally run to this day, and of the outstanding results we have achieved for the students we assist. We realize the High School and College journey has become exponentially more stressful and anxiety-provoking for parents and their children over the last few years, due to increasingly more competitive college admissions; we are there to help ease that burden, provide a second set of ears, advise you every step of the way, and assist in any way that we can. You can lean on us and trust our multiple years of combined experience helping students and their families achieve their academic goals. We will get you where you need, want, and hope to be.
GET IN TOUCH
Tell us about your tutoring needs. We'll get back to you
within 4 business hours. That's our promise.
CONTACT US
Call us anytime 9 AM - 6 PM PST/EST Monday through Saturday: (818) 917-9537, (646) 801-8401.
Need a tutor right away? Call us today. We match most students within 8 hours of your first call.
© 2023 - Celebrating 10 Years of Continued Success and Hundreds of Happy Families!
Ivy Tutors is not affiliated with, or approved by, The Ivy League or its member universities.