Is StudySoup a Scam? Here’s What They’re Not Telling You!

Welcome to my StudySoup review!

When I was in college, I made a short living of selling my notes to some of my classmate. This existed because they liked how I made my notes.

Granted, it wasn’t a lot of money but I had fun doing it. And then I sold it to the lower year students.

A similar program runs the same income opportunity like I did back in college. This program is called StudySoup.

First of all, I must Congratulate you for taking your time to do your own research before buying into any "seemingly good" product.

That's the way to avoid scams and find the legitimate way to make money online!

Let me be completely transparent with you, I'm not associated with StudySoup in any form.

So, rest assured that I'm not here to pitch or sell anything to you.

Instead, I'm here to reveal what they can offer to the students and how they're supposedly able to make money...

So if you’re a notetaker and want to make money from your notes, then you might have heard about StudySoup.

This is a peer-to-peer learning marketplace that allows students to sell and purchase notes, study guides, and other course materials.

This was founded by 2 college students as a solution to their own challenges of note-taking. The marketplace is simple and straightforward to use.

They also offer study materials for various standardized exams such as the MCAT.

Note that this site isn’t intended for having your homework and coursework done. It merely provides you with a marketplace for study notes and guides.

You’ll just need to sign up with an email address or an existing Facebook account. It’s free to sign up (unless you’re going to sing up as a student) for a note-taker.

How to Become a Notetaker?

There are two ways to become a note-taker. You can take notes and upload them to the site. If someone buys the notes, you earn a commission.

If you want to earn more, you’ll have to apply for the Elite Note-Taker position, which requires the following:

1. You have to be enrolled in a class with 50 or more students.
2. The class has to has 3 exams or more in a semester.
3. The class has regular lectures where you get opportunity to take notes
4. You’re getting ready for grad school entrance exam (LSAT, MCAT, etc)

You’ll have to apply for the position and if you’re accepted, you’ll need to set an appointment with a mentor, who’ll get you up to speed on what you need to do.

If you’re a good note-taker and you have above average grades, your notes will probably sell easily on StudySoup.

Handwritten notes are accepted, but you might want to type them up if you’re not confident about your handwriting.

How Much Money Can You Make?

According to StudySoup, Elite Note-Takers earn anywhere between $300 to $500 per course, or about $2,000 or more per semester. The more in-demand the course and notes are, the higher the income.

Note-takers and Elite Note-takers earn a base pay plus commission on sales, even if you don’t sell anything. Commissions are 50% for Elite Note-takers and lower for Note-takers.

You can upload notes for up to three classes per semester and if you want to earn more, you’ll have to consider the Elite Note-taker position.

You can also create exam study guides and you can make up to three study guides before the exams take place. However they’ll need to be uploaded at least 4 days before the scheduled test.

Getting Paid from StudySoup: What to Know

You can keep track of how much money you’ve made by logging into your account and clicking on the “My Money” section.

There are also three additional ways for you to earn money from StudySoup, and one of them is their referral program. You earn $5 each time your friends:

• Signs up for StudySoup
• Takes the Elite Notetaker training
• Uploads a set of notes

Once your notes start to sell, you’ll be able to withdraw your cash using PayPal once you reach the $50 threshold.

It takes up to 5 business days to process the payment. You can also opt for direct deposit. Their FAQ page will answer most of your questions for payment.

Requirements To Getting Paid

There are some requirements that you might want to take note of before you can get paid.

You’ll need to upload notes on a weekly basis, at about 8 weeks of notes within a 12-13 week semester. This is about 70% of your entire class.

Create a study guide for each exam and upload it days before the exam

Share your link with your classmates through your messaging tool.

Here are some quick insights about how to get paid by watching their training video:

StudySoup sounds promising at first, but there’s just a lot of things going on with the program that doesn’t make me want to recommend this to anyone.

In the next section, you’ll see what I mean.

#1 Poor Customer Service

There are multiple feedback about their poor customer service for both customers and note-takers.

The main issues here for note-takers is that they are not properly being compensated, or have not yet received their payment.

Checking out these reviews below, it’s quite consistent and it’s kind of disappointing to know that the program has these issues.

Most customers have complained about notes being of poor quality, meaning they have the wrong information or they don’t match the customers’ expectations. The first one is more likely to happen.

If that’s the case, then that would reduce the number of people wanting to join the program as a student because of the poor quality notes.

#3 Low Income Potential

You’d have to be an Elite Note-taker to earn top dollar, but even then you’d have to be consistently uploading notes every moment you get.

I don’t think that basic Note-takers earn a base pay, but the commission rate is lower than Elite Note-takers. So if a note sells for $10, you’ll earn less than $5. And that is if you manage to sell these notes too.

If not for those issues above, this program would’ve had potential and I would’ve had a few nice things to say about their program.

Those issues just overshadow anything good about this program.

StudySoup is a legitimate marketplace that allows students to market their college notes and be able to make money through them. However, there are three major issues that plague them and I don’t want to recommend this program to anyone.

There are customer service issues that are unresolved and are focused on note-takers not being paid properly. With that said, I don’t think you can earn from this program until this is addressed.

A lot of people have already said something about their income opportunity and they all say the same thing: the customer service is terrible.