“Favorable Market Dynamics”

In addition to helping students get the scores they need to get into college, Princeton Review now also owns a college.

Yesterday the standardized test preparation company concluded its takeover of Penn Foster Education Group, a for-profit online career school based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Princeton Review paid $170 million in cash for Penn Foster, which operates a web-based high school, provides career training, and grants associates and bachelors degrees. Michael Perik, CEO of Princeton Review, explained that:

While the traditional college enrollment targeted by our Test Prep business remains healthy, the addition of Penn Foster will enable The Princeton Review to efficiently expand our education footprint, develop new partnerships with a variety of organizations, and immediately take advantage of favorable market dynamics.

In addition to its test preparation and college counseling services, Princeton Review publishes The Best 371 Colleges, which ranks schools in categories like Best Professors, Happiest Students, Best Food, and Gay Community Most Accepted.

Penn Foster is not one of the schools that appears in Princeton Review’s rankings.