Award-Winning Intellectual History
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Award-Winning
Intellectual History
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Private 1-on-1 tutoring, weekly live classes for academic support, test prep & enrichment, practice tests and diagnostics, and more to elevate grades and test scores.
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I am an interdisciplinary educator with an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. from Dartmouth College. My background is primarily in integrated arts learning and museum education and I specialize in visual arts, history and art history, and object-based learning. In all subjects, I take a creative, inquiry-based and learner-centered approach, designing opportunities for each unique individual to meet their learning goals.
I'm not tutoring or buried in my textbooks, you will either find me rock climbing at the Triangle Rock Club, playing Ultimate Frisbee, working on my car, or enjoying the great outdoors (beaches, mountains, forests--you name it, I love it). On rainy weekends I enjoy tinkering with computers and old electronics, playing Pokemon, or picking at my guitar.
I am a recent graduate from a masters program in biostatistics at Columbia University. I received my Bachelor of Arts in biological sciences, with a focus in neurobiology at Northwestern University. In August, I will be starting a doctoral program in biostatistics at NYU. I was a teaching assistant at Columbia University in my department and also have tutored graduate students and undergraduates privately as well. My primary areas of tutoring are math and statistics coursework in addition to math sections on standardized tests such as the GRE and GMAT. I am very passionate about helping students feel more confident and excited about math. In my spare time, I enjoy running, playing piano, and spending time with friends and family.
I am a graduate of Wesleyan University, where I received my Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with High Honors. With eight years of experience working in education, I've tutored students in math, science, history, and English, as well as helped students prepare for standardized tests. I've guided adults towards passing the US Citizenship Exam and taught English in India, where I lived for six months. Whenever I work with a student I personalize the lessons to fit their particular learning style, since I know every student is unique and having the right fit can make all the difference in making learning fun and effective. My strengths are tutoring the social sciences and humanities, as well as making math and standardized tests approachable to students that normally don't like those subjects. In my spare time I like traveling, spending time in the outdoors (climbing & backpacking), meditation, and playing soccer. Next fall I will be beginning my PhD in Education at Harvard University.
I am a junior Mechanical Engineering major at Yale, and I hope to become a Naval Aviator after college. I am also a varsity sailor, and enjoy playing music with friends when I can get some free time. I have been tutoring my fellow students throughout my entire academic career, and I would best describe my tutoring style as one that adapts to each students' needs. For example, I have always tried to frame questions in a different way so that the student can better understand the question. Some students need visual representations of numbers and systems to understand them, and others benefit more by understanding the concepts behind each formula. I prefer to tutor in math and physics, and especially with real world application problems. I hope to help students improve their standardized test scores and their understanding of the math and sciences so that they can achieve their academic goals!
I'm Solange - a recent graduate from Harvard where I studied Sociology & Women's Studies. I've been tutoring for eight years now, and have worked with a wide range of ages and in a wide range of subjects. Some of my specialties are college prep/test taking II worked in the admissions office on campus); social sciences; and literature/writing.
I am a rising sophomore at Harvard College and am about to declare as a Mechanical Engineering concentrator, working towards a Bachelor of Science degree. I've always enjoyed sharing my knowledge with my peers and those around me and have done so in both formal and informal settings. I've been a tutor for both Math and Spanish programs in high school and enjoyed the strides I made with students. I am willing to tutor any subject I have a background in, but am strong in mathematics, the sciences, Spanish, history, writing, and ACT prep. I enjoy teaching mathematics most due to the joy I can see in children once they master a topic and can answer even pointed questions meant to stump them, and maybe even put their knowledge to real world use. As a tutor, I like to give a strong foundation to orient my student, and then gradually grant them more freedom and independence until they can feel themselves grasp the concept, pointing out pitfalls or common errors along the way; teachers who used these methods on me always left the most lasting impressions. Outside of my studies, I really enjoy listening to music, both old favorites and new interests, reading classics, and gaming/playing basketball with my friends.
I am a graduate of Washington University in St Louis, where I received my Bachelor of Arts in History with minors in Humanities and Anthropology. Since graduation, I have worked as a tutor, teacher, and director of tutors at a charter public middle school in Boston. During this time I also received my Masters in Mild to Moderate Disabilities from Simmons College. I have worked extensively with students with a range of abilities, including students with specific learning disabilities, emotional impairments, dyslexia, and ADHD. My teaching experience has given me a deep understanding of the knowledge and habits essential to academic success and has given me the opportunity to hone a variety of strategies that ensure students at each level can achieve their academic goals. While I tutor a broad range of subjects, my favorite ones are Reading, Elementary/Middle School Math, History, and Test Prep. In my experience, tutoring is the most rewarding when a student has that "aha!" moment and achieves a new level of understanding and confidence in his/her abilities. I am a firm believer in the transformative power of education, and I see my role to be that of a facilitator and coach who is there to help the student reach his/her goals through individualized support and rigorous practice. In my free time, I enjoy reading, running, practicing my Spanish, and discovering new music. I am also an avid traveler and just got back from a 3 month trip to South America. I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!
I am proud to be a part of Varsity Tutors! I am originally from San Antonio, TX; I completed my undergraduate education at Rice University in Houston where I received a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Currently, I am in my second year of medical school at Baylor College of Medicine.
I am an aspiring applied mathematician, with particular interest in image processing and climate science. I graduated in May 2017 from Washington University in St. Louis with a bachelor's in physics and mathematics, and am beginning a PhD program in September 2017 at the University of Chicago in Computational and Applied Mathematics. I've tutored introductory physics students for three years and enjoyed it thoroughly, as a chance to help other students while revisiting fundamental concepts to enhance my own knowledge. I'm eager to continue reaching out and helping students of math and physics to succeed and, furthermore, to appreciate the beauty and power of these subjects.
I am currently attending Johns Hopkins University, pursuing a dual degree in Computer Science and Applied Math and Statistics. I love helping students and I love the feeling I get knowing that I was able to use my knowledge to make someone else happier. My favorite subject to teach is math because there are so many ways to learn it and if one way does not help I can use another. I used to teach taekwondo and interacted with all kinds of students, and I'm excited to help out more!
I am currently a senior at Harvard College where I study chemistry, and I'll be attending Columbia Medical School next year. I have years of experience tutoring college students in math (mostly calculus) and chemistry including both general and organic chemistry. In addition, I am very familiar with all sections of the SAT and ACT having prepared several high school students for these tests. I believe that every student is capable of boosting his or her baseline score on these tests, so long as he or she works hard to get to know the format of the tests and the most popular types of questions. I tutor because I love seeing students develop a genuine passion for the subjects they once disliked (such as math and science), once they understand the power of these subjects and their applications to the real world.
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Frequently Asked Questions
This is one of the biggest challenges in Intellectual History—students often memorize that Marx wrote about class conflict or that Foucault discussed power/knowledge, but struggle to use these frameworks analytically. A tutor can help you practice applying theories to primary texts and historical contexts by asking targeted questions: What assumptions does this thinker make? How would another theorist critique this argument? What evidence supports or challenges this framework? Working through case studies—like analyzing how Enlightenment rationalism shaped colonial policy, or how Romantic thought influenced 19th-century social movements—helps you internalize frameworks as analytical tools rather than facts to recall.
Intellectual History focuses on *how ideas develop, spread, and shape human thought and action*—not just what happened historically. This means you're tracing the evolution of concepts (like 'freedom,' 'progress,' or 'the individual'), examining how thinkers respond to and build on each other, and understanding the intellectual *context* that made certain ideas possible at certain times. A tutor can help you shift from a narrative-based approach (what happened when) to a conceptual one (why did people think this way, and what changed their thinking?). This affects how you read sources, take notes, and construct arguments—you're looking for intellectual lineages, influences, and debates rather than just chronological events.
Philosophical and theoretical texts require a different reading strategy than narrative history. Instead of reading straight through, try this approach: identify the author's central claim or problem they're solving, map their key arguments, and note where they agree or disagree with predecessors. A tutor can model close reading techniques—annotating for definitions, assumptions, evidence, and counterarguments—and help you break down dense passages into digestible pieces. For example, when reading Descartes' *Meditations*, a tutor might help you track how his method of doubt works and why he arrives at 'cogito ergo sum,' rather than getting bogged down in every sentence. Building a glossary of key terms specific to each thinker also prevents confusion when the same word means different things to different theorists.
This is a critical distinction in Intellectual History: did Enlightenment thought *cause* the French Revolution, or did Enlightenment ideas *circulate among* people who were already motivated by economic grievances and political instability? A tutor can help you develop precision in causal language by asking: What's your evidence? Could other factors explain this outcome? Is this correlation or causation? Strong Intellectual History arguments use careful language like 'influenced,' 'provided a framework for,' 'enabled people to articulate,' or 'reflected anxieties about' rather than claiming direct causation. Practicing this distinction—especially when writing essays—helps you avoid oversimplification and builds the nuanced thinking that separates strong Intellectual History work from weaker analysis.
In Intellectual History, your evidence is primarily *textual*—direct quotes and close analysis of what thinkers actually wrote, said, or published. But evidence also includes the *context* in which ideas emerged: What were people reading? What problems were they trying to solve? What intellectual conversations were happening? A strong Intellectual History argument might trace how a single concept (like 'civilization') was defined differently by thinkers across decades, using specific quotes to show evolution. A tutor can help you move beyond summary ('Hobbes believed X') to analysis ('Hobbes's definition of the state as a sovereign power was a response to the chaos of the English Civil War, and this framework later influenced Enlightenment debates about authority'). This means your essays need both textual evidence and contextual framing to be convincing.
Intellectual History requires you to understand thinkers on their own terms *and* recognize their limitations—a balance many students struggle with. For instance, you might analyze how Enlightenment philosophers championed 'reason' and 'universal rights' while ignoring or actively supporting slavery and colonialism. A tutor can help you develop a critical reading practice: What groups or perspectives are absent from this thinker's work? What assumptions do they take for granted? How might their social position (gender, class, nationality) have shaped their ideas? This isn't about dismissing historical figures but about understanding how intellectual blind spots are shaped by historical context. Building this habit of critical analysis—especially when writing papers—demonstrates sophisticated historical thinking and helps you avoid uncritically celebrating or condemning past thinkers.
Many students write essays that read like a series of summaries: 'Locke believed X, Rousseau believed Y, Kant believed Z.' Strong Intellectual History synthesis shows *how these thinkers relate to each other*—where they agree, where they diverge, and why those differences matter. A tutor can teach you to organize arguments thematically rather than by thinker: instead of 'Locke's theory of knowledge,' try 'How did competing theories of knowledge shape debates about authority?' Then use Locke, Descartes, Hume, and others as evidence for different positions within that debate. This approach requires you to understand each thinker deeply enough to extract their position on a specific question and compare it meaningfully to others. Practicing this skill transforms your essays from descriptive to analytical and shows you've truly grasped the intellectual landscape you're studying.
An excellent Intellectual History research paper has a clear *intellectual problem or question*—not just a topic. Rather than 'The Enlightenment and Science,' a stronger focus might be 'How did changing ideas about empirical evidence transform scientific authority in the 17th century?' Your paper should trace the development of an idea, debate, or concept through primary sources and secondary scholarship, showing how thinkers built on, challenged, or reframed earlier arguments. A tutor can help you structure this by identifying your central intellectual question, selecting primary texts that illuminate different positions, and building an argument that shows *why* this intellectual history matters. The strongest papers also contextualize ideas—explaining what problems thinkers were responding to and what made certain ideas persuasive or influential at particular moments. This requires both deep textual analysis and historical awareness, which a tutor can help you balance effectively.
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