What we do
Since 2013, Rhizome has facilitated the assembly of custom courses in live, online, transnational environments. We find the best teachers in the world to teach what students anywhere want to learn in real time. Courses are conducted in virtual classrooms, face-to-face, and are built to serve specific student and parent goals with the best-suited instructors for those goals.
The core aim of each of our courses is for students to master ingenuity and creative problem-solving, so that they stand out beyond common standards of excellence. We teach this originality in every discipline, and at every level: a course that focuses on essential grammar and style in essays, for example, will teach those essentials in a way that fosters unique discoveries and a unique voice; a course that prepares students to enter AP Physics will show students the flexibility inherent in basic principles.
We specialize in students who aspire to study at top U.S. and U.K. universities, and who may need specific kinds of preparation that they are not receiving in their regular schools: style and originality in writing, for instance, or close literary interpretation, or western methods of philosophical debate.
Our instructors
Our teachers are not just rigorously vetted for world-class qualifications, exceptional teaching ability, and cultural expertise—they are recruited for these qualities based on each course request. Our instructors must have a Ph.D. in their field from a top-tier university (or be about to receive one), and they must show that they have been awarded for teaching (or have had their teaching consistently reviewed at a superior level). The only exceptions we make to these requirements are course and culture-specific: a teacher who has received a national teaching award and is teaching a bilingual middle-school course, for example, might have an MA in her field rather than a Ph.D.
Having been recruited as some of the best in the world, Rhizome’s teachers have significant freedom in the design and execution of their courses. They are asked to make the principles described above, in “What we do,” central to their approach, and they are asked to find the place where their most advanced research—the things they are most excited about in their field—intersect with the needs of their students. Their syllabi are thoroughly vetted, and their teaching monitored, but aside from essential principles they have wide leeway to teach their ideal version of their course.
Results
Each year, we see our students go on to thrive in the world’s leading higher education programs, often directly after preparatory courses with us before they apply. Our students are currently studying at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and Cambridge universities, among a wide range of other exceptional schools.
Courses
Students, parents, and educational consultants are welcome to request a course in any subject, at any level, and Rhizome will assign or recruit an ideal instructor for the specific topic, level, approach, and cultural context. The minimum number of students for a course is usually 3, and the maximum is 10 (multiple sections of a course can also be arranged). Courses run on a schedule that best accommodates their students: they typically include 10-12 hours of remote (live) classroom time, spread over 2-10 weeks, and always include extensive support outside of the classroom. The cost per student for courses of that duration is typically $1200, though scholarships are also available. For a list of courses that we have run recently or are currently running, please see Current Courses.