If you have ever wondered if students at other universities, or even at UC Davis, have had similar college experiences, there is a new website to check out.
Thecollegefacts.com is a website created by university students with the purpose of providing entertainment to fellow college students.
The site was created by two seniors, Matthew Butrimovitz, from University of Arizona, and Robbie Alper, from Northeastern University. Butrimovitz came up with the idea at the beginning of the school year.
“For the last three years, I have had the average college experience,” he said. “I realized there was nothing on the web for that, so I decided to start the website.”
He started building the website in October and the site was launched in November. He attributes his web design skills to a summer internship he had. Alper joined Butrimovitz after the high school friends talked one day.
“I wanted to get involved because it was an exciting opportunity to put a lot of potential growth in the idea,” Alper said. “[By] teaming up with my friend, I knew we had the right stuff to go forward.”
The basis of the website are simple college “facts,” usually one line each, that anybody from any school can submit. Most “facts” are based on a college stereotype, but do happen in real life.
The first “fact” on the website was “Childhood board games turn into drinking games.”
Before long the website was becoming increasingly popular and spreading to more schools. The site now averages more than 45,000 monthly viewers.
“I started it as a passion project,” Butrimovitz said. “I never really thought so much success would happen this quickly.”
The site also has attached Twitter and Facebook accounts, which have regular posts. Through these networks, the site has already started making its way to UC Davis.
“I found out [about thecollegefacts.com] through Facebook,” said senior neurobiology, physiology and behavior major Hunter Launer.
Launer knows Butrimovitz from camp and saw one of his posts about the website, which is the original reason he viewed the site.
“I look at the memes; they are pretty funny,” Launer said.
Other than posting facts, the website also features a blog by Butrimovitz. He sees the blog as reading context that is fun to give to people. The blog is full of more in-depth college experiences that people send to him.
With the site expanding and becoming more popular, the creators are looking toward the future. Soon, as they finish out their own college experiences, they are hoping to hire some interns for the site.
They will be looking for student representatives from colleges across the country as more universities become involved with the site.
According to Butrimovitz, even though they want the site to expand exponentially, in the web industry, it is about taking it step by step.
Both he and Alper see the site as a great opportunity and even a way to affect high school students’ choice of which university to go to.
For now, though, they both continue to be amazed at the high popularity of the site and how much is yet to come.
“Returning to school after winter break and seeing how people have been enjoying [the site] has been cool,” Alper said.
There is bound to be a “fact” that everyone finds relation to.
For example, “Realizing it’s midnight and you haven’t started any of your work for tomorrow. #CollegeFact.”
ZANDER WOLD can be reached at city@theaggie.org.
