Yale Daily News

Updated: Saturday, November 21, 2009 4:25 p.m.

A A A

Rhodes ’09 earns big with paint

Contributing Reporter
Published Thursday, February 19, 2009

Last summer, while his friends were packing for prestigious internships, Max Rhodes ’09 was driving to the local Sherwin-Williams store to buy exterior house paint. Come fall, his summer spent painting houses had made the enterprising history major $60,000 richer and the head of his own painting business.

This success was made possible by the help of College Pro Painters, Rhodes said, an international corporation that franchises exterior painting businesses to college students on one-year contracts.

“I had tried founding my own business before,” he commented, “but failed...

#1 By Robert 8:43a.m. on February 19, 2009

Is this a news article or an advertisement?
It certainly reads like the latter.
Have their been no College Pro Painting franchisees with negative experiences?
A simple Google search suggests otherwise...

#2 By Congrats Max 11:28a.m. on February 19, 2009

Max is a great guy - he's going places!

#3 By phil 1:15p.m. on February 19, 2009

joey mensah is a great guy. i hope he has as successful of a run as his teammate, max rhodes '09 did this summer. a followup next year on joey mensah's successes would be aawesome.

#4 By justin wu 2:28p.m. on February 19, 2009

we shall see if mensah shall have these revenues. i wish him the best of luck.

#5 By Ramone 4:48p.m. on February 19, 2009

Does CollegePro offer commercial liability insurance if a painter is injured on the job? Seems like the liability is high for this job.

#6 By anon 5:34p.m. on February 19, 2009

Since when does the YDN give out free advertising in the form of articles?

You do know that Max gets paid a fee for every Yale student he gets to sign up and a percentage of their revenue, right?

College Pro is a terrible, terrible organization. Google it. Too bad this article was horribly unbalanced propaganda..

#7 By mimi k - london 6:05p.m. on February 19, 2009

Mensah is Ghanian, does anyone know if this program is available abroad?

#8 By Hm...Interesting 1:20a.m. on February 20, 2009

This article was a much better one on College Pro -- http://dailyuw.com/2002/6/7/peeling-back-the-paint/

I wonder how so many students struggled to break even while Rhodes made $60,000?

#9 By Recent Alum 12:48p.m. on February 20, 2009

#8: Many students nationwide don't have the entrepreneurial skills that many Yalies have. It is not surprising that some are struggling, but this is not relevant to this article, which is written from a Yale-centric perspective.

#10 By '10 4:33p.m. on February 21, 2009

I thought the article provided a pretty balanced insight. There wasn't much of a necessity to show failure on other campuses, particularly since this was mentioned:

“It’s not an easy job, and it can go horribly wrong if the wrong person is set to do it,” Rhodes said. “College Pro has been banned from some college campuses because of this.”

Maybe the Yale selection process, which accepts only "one-quarter" of the applicants, has been more successful. Either way, College Pro has positively impacted participating Yalies, and that's the balanced truth that was shown in the article.

Add Comment

You are not logged in. We do allow posting without registration, but we encourage you to register or log in to enjoy full access to our comments features!