College Prowler - History & Current Status

History & Current Status

The company was established in 2002 by Carnegie Mellon University graduates. It began as a project in an entrepreneurship class at CMU's Tepper School of Business and was expanded by co-founders Luke Skurman, Joey Rahimi, Christina Koshzow, Christopher Mason, Jason Putorti, and Omid Gohari. In 2005, College Prowler was recognized by Fast Company (magazine) for being one of the 50 fastest-growing companies in the nation, and in 2006, partnered with AOL. As of April 2012, College Prowler has nearly 400,000 reviews on over 7,700 schools in the United States. In addition to student reviews, College Prowler gives out more than $50,000 in scholarships every year to current and prospective students. College Prowler originally began as a publisher of individual school guidebooks, eventually expanding with a yearly compendium edition covering over 400 schools.

While the company has always operated a website, it was originally used to promote and sell the guidebooks. In 2007, College Prowler shifted its efforts to the online format, restricting access to content with a paid subscription. Users were able to navigate content only with their paid account which limited many students from reading the reviews, rankings, and scholarships. In 2012, College Prowler made the decision to forego all physical books based on the growing demand for e-books and online content. In mid-2009, College Prowler dropped paid subscriptions and opened the website to all users as a free college search service.