Getting Started
CollegeTalk is built to make it easy for you to earn money by sharing your real college experience with prospective students and parents.
You choose the conversations you want to offer, set your availability, and choose your interview price. Once you complete an eligible conversation, your earnings are added to your CollegeTalk balance.
Before you can receive your earnings, you'll need to complete the required Stripe setup and connect your account so your payouts can be sent to your bank account.
Your First Conversation
Your first completed conversation on CollegeTalk is commission-free.
That means CollegeTalk does not take its usual 10% commission from your first eligible completed conversation. You keep the full interview value before any applicable Stripe processing or payout fees.
Your first conversation is a chance to get started, meet a prospective student, and experience what it's like to earn on CollegeTalk without the standard CollegeTalk commission.
After Your First Conversation
After your first completed conversation, CollegeTalk takes a 10% commission from each eligible completed conversation.
The commission is taken from the conversation value before applicable Stripe fees are applied.
Here's the simple way to think about it:
- You set the price of your conversation.
- A prospective student books and completes the conversation.
- Your first completed conversation is commission-free. After that, CollegeTalk keeps 10% of the conversation value.
- Applicable Stripe processing or payout fees are then deducted from the remaining amount.
- The rest is your net payout.
So, after your first conversation, the amount you receive will generally be the conversation value minus the CollegeTalk commission and any applicable Stripe fees.
Why Is There a Commission?
The CollegeTalk commission helps us operate and grow the platform so you can focus on what you do best: sharing your experience with students who want to learn from you.
Your commission helps support things like platform development, secure payments, video interviews, student discovery, customer support, safety features, and the technology needed to connect you with prospective students.
Our goal is to make CollegeTalk a place where you can build your profile, meet students, and earn from the experience you've already gained in college.
Stripe Fees
CollegeTalk uses Stripe to process payments and facilitate payouts to college students. Stripe may charge applicable processing or payout fees depending on your account, transaction, payment method, currency, and other factors.
Stripe's fees are separate from CollegeTalk's commission, and CollegeTalk does not control Stripe's pricing. Stripe may change its fees or pricing structure from time to time.
For the most up-to-date information about Stripe's pricing, visit Stripe's published pricing .
CollegeTalk may use Stripe Connect to facilitate college student payouts. Depending on the applicable Stripe services and account configuration, additional Stripe Connect fees or pricing may apply.
You can learn more about Stripe Connect pricing through Stripe's published Connect pricing .
When You'll Get Paid
Once your earnings are eligible for payout, you can generally request a payout every 2 days.
Payouts are handled through Stripe and are sent to the bank account connected to your Stripe account. The exact time it takes for funds to reach your bank can depend on Stripe, your bank, your payout settings, and whether Stripe requires additional verification.
If you're setting up your account for the first time, Stripe may ask you to verify your identity or provide additional information before payouts can be enabled.
Keep More of What You Earn
Since Stripe fees can include transaction or payout-related charges, very small payouts may be less efficient than allowing your balance to build before requesting a payout.
When possible, consider letting your CollegeTalk balance accumulate before requesting a payout. This may help reduce the impact of fixed transaction-related fees.