By Lili Romann ’19 & Seby Shuken ’18

Staples is known as a competitive academic environment. Students want to earn the best grades possible and look to tutors for help.  However, the average cost of a tutor runs high.  Top Hat Tutors, a tutoring company run entirely by Staples students, has created a solution to this problem.

“Tutors around here cost upwards of $150 per hour, which is insane,” a tutor, Abby Supan ’17 said. “We offer affordable tutoring by peers who know the methods teachers use to teach because we have been in their classes.”

At $40 an hour, the tutors hope to drag in students that are looking for more of a relationship with their tutor, rather than the emotional disconnect they might find with an older, professional tutor.

“I find the fact that our tutors are Staples  kids  allows  for them to connect a lot better with the students they are tutoring,” Top Hat Tutors’ vice president, Evan Feder ’17, said. “It’s not some forty year old adult. You really feel the connection.”

Jay   Mudholkar ’17, the current president of  Top Hat, describes the company as  a  tutoring  service  offering a wide variety of subjects and levels at an affordable  price.

“I enjoy every second of it, and the fact that the work I do helps provide students quality peer-on-peer tutoring at a reasonable rate makes it worth it for me,” Mudholkar said.

Many of Top Hat’s clients feel they receive a stronger education due to the small, or non-existent, age difference and the tutors’ flexible schedules, which allows them to meet at different times and convenient locations.

“There is something about a peer-to-peer relationship that really helps cultivate a great learning environment,” Ethan Vosper ’19, a client of Top Hat, said. “It’s better than a real tutor because other students understand Staples and your classes better than adults because they are in the middle of it.”

However, some students have contradicting views and find themselves stronger and more confident after a session with a professional, as student tutors seem less educated.

“I had one good student tutor and one who didn’t really help that much,” an anonymous source said. “I don’t think they always knew the information I was asking them about, which made my time with them pretty inefficient.”

While many teachers at Staples tutor outside of school, some had  conflicting opinions regarding Top Hat’s approach to tutoring.

“I would not say peer to peer is better than  teacher to student tutoring, however it is clear that most teachers know  more    information   than  students and are better at communicating the information to students,” English teacher Riley Lynch said. “Peer to peer tutoring does offer a more equal conversation than teacher to student and it builds confidence for students.”

Looking toward the future, Mudholkar and Feder have expanded the company to provide services outside the core curriculum classes and now offer tutoring in subjects like chess, basketball and violin.

“We don’t directly advertise it, but we are  willing    to    offer    sports    tutoring                or instrument tutoring, anything that our over forty tutors here at Staples can offer,” Feder said.

Top Hat looks to continue expanding the company and providing tutoring services in order to help students get the help that they need.

“We’ve reached 41 tutors and over 120 clients. We’re now a household name in Westport,” Feder said. “The cheaper alternative to a professional tutor.”