Unlike better-known test preparation competitors Kaplan Inc. or the Princeton Review Inc., House of Tutors Learning Centers USA Inc. doesn't trumpet increases in exam scores to entice customers.

This homegrown mentoring service doesn't need to.

For 22 years, House of Tutors has been serving the academic needs of young Central Texans. Under husband and wife Hussain and Anjum Malik, the company has acquired a reputation for personal attention and improved academic achievement.

The results speak for themselves, Hussain Malik says.

"It's a satisfying business, and we constantly hear back from students and parents," he says. "To paraphrase the saying, 'We're teaching kids how to fish--and not fishing for them.'"

The company bolsters high school and university students' confidence by providing individual and group tutoring, subject review and preparation for standardized tests such as the PSAT, SAT, LSAT, MCAT and GMATs.

House of Tutors also offers study skills development, summer mentor programs, placement exam preparation, intensive language study, supplemental lecture notes, off-site study and more.

"The tutors and staff go out of their way to make you feel like you're important," says Kelly Greenhaw, a University of Texas junior who successfully underwent House of Tutors' program for UT provisional admission two summers ago.

"It's all up to you in the end, but my math tutor worked with me until 1 a.m. on the night before the crucial exam I needed to get in to Texas."

In 1982, Hussain Malik, then a senior engineer with Motorola, Inc., decided against a company relocation to Arizona and took over the lease from a small tutoring firm just off UT's campus. Two years later, he and Anjum incorporated House of Tutors.

Since then, the company has helped an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 students navigate standardized tests, and college and graduate school courses and admissions.

Realizing their niche, the pair quickly added more course tutors, class instructor reviews and placement preparations. Later, the company added a program for provisional students at UT, which grew to more than 300 students annually until UT revised its provisional programs in 2001.

Anjum Malik estimates House of Tutors' success rate at converting provisional students at 75 percent or 80 percent, compared with UT's rate of 40 percent to 45 percent.

"As you can imagine, parents responses were extremely positive," she says. "It was a truly rewarding program, because in a matter of one summer we helped many students earn full-time status."

House of Tutors owns 11,000 square feet in a former West Campus sorority house. The center offers numerous tutoring spaces, classrooms and general meeting areas. Open seven days [a week], the company maintains late office hours, offering students flexibility on instructor choice.

The 20-employee, 150-tutor staff comprises graduate and post-graduate students, high school and middle school teachers, and university faculty who teach in most subjects from the elementary through college levels.

"The opportunity to teach a group of kids that is pretty focused has helped me be a better teacher," says middle school principal Tim McGhee, who has taught college-level American history and government for House of Tutors since the mid-1990s.

"The staff is accommodating, and I enjoy interacting with kids who are focused on graduating."

Mentors and tutors working for the company gain confidence and teaching skills as well. Hussain Malik says many tutors have gone on to teaching or other education careers.

"It's a relaxed atmosphere here, definitely a family-oriented place to work," say Matt Hubley, a House of Tutors' mathematics instructor for four years. "The tutor scheduling is flexible, which makes the job convenient, and it's just fun to work with students when you know improvement is definitely the norm."

The company just launched an off-site test preparation program in which instructors travel to meet students within a 50-mile radius of Austin. Tutors are instructing students in Round Rock, Dripping Springs, Marble Falls, New Braunfels and San Marcos at locations such as homes and churches.

House of Tutors also recently launched its first advertising campaign, producing radio spots in-house that are running on KLBJ-AM and elsewhere.

Hussain Malik estimates his business has grown 25 times its launch size. He and Anjum hope to expand at some point to Dallas or Houston but plan to do so gradually.

"We're a mind-power business, and we can grow systematically," Hussain Malik says.

Stuart Wade
Austin Business Journal (October 4-10 2002)