When Robbie Alper’s high school buddy, Matt, asked him if he wanted to be involved in a new website he’d created at the University of Arizona, Robbie was up for the challenge. Robbie, now a Northeastern middler, became COO of TheCollegeFacts.com, a website of user-submitted content for college students across the country.
The website already has over 9,000 fans on their Facebook page and 1,300 Twitter followers — not bad for a site that just launched in November, 2011– but Robbie has even bigger goals in mind. “We’ve seen how big websites like Texts From Last Night and TFM have gotten, and there’s no reason we can’t do that,” says the International Affairs major from California.
The College Facts mission statement is “a site that defines the college experience, one fact at a time.” Robbie sees the site not only as a tool for entertaining, but also connecting college students and even high school seniors undecided about their college choice. “You can search by school and it will give you an inside view that no one else is going to give you,” Robbie says.
So what’s the “inside view” that Northeastern students are posting on The College Facts?
As COO, Robbie acts as content manager, as well as head of marketing. He chooses which facts are posted each day, ensuring that they’re both funny and appropriate. He also manages and moderates the site’s social media outlets. Robbie says one of their goals for the site is to expand without relying on too many ads, just word of mouth. In spite of their limited budget and a full course load, Robbie says he’s excited about the future of The College Facts – even if it takes him one fact at a time.