Acceptance of Terms. By visiting and using the College Confidential website (including all content, information and functionality available through the College Confidential domain name, herein after referred to as the "Website"), you agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions of use ("Terms of Service") and the College Confidential Privacy Policy ("Privacy Policy"), available here and incorporated herein by reference. Should you choose to participate in the College Confidential Forum, you also agree to abide by the College Confidential Forum Rules (“Forum Rules”), available here and incorporated herein by reference. These Terms of Service and the Forum Rules and Privacy Policy apply to your use of the Website. Please do not visit or use the Website if you do not agree to be bound by the Terms of Service, Forum Rules and Privacy Policy. College Confidential, LLC (hereinafter referred to as “College Confidential”, “we”, “us”, “our”) reserves the right to modify or revise its Terms of Service, Forum Rules and/or Privacy Policy, in its sole discretion, at any time. Your continued use of the Website indicates your agreement to be bound by any and all subsequent modifications or revisions. College Confidential will attempt to notify Website users whenever it modifies or revises the Terms of Service, Forum Rules and/or Privacy Policy, however, we reserve the right to make such modifications or revisions without prior notice to you. College Confidential recommends that Website users review the most up-to-date version of the Terms of Service, Forum Rules and Privacy Policy periodically at www.collegeconfidential.com.
Eligibility. You represent and warrant that you are capable of entering into the terms, conditions, obligations, affirmations, representations and warranties as set forth in the Terms of Service, Forum Rules and Privacy Policy. If you are under the age of 13 years of age, you must obtain permission from your parent or legal guardian before using the Website. Please see our Privacy Policy.
Registration. and Your Identity College Confidential seeks to maximize the utility of its forum to its members and visitors, and does not knowingly allow members to misrepresent themselves. Once you register and create a user name, it cannot be changed. Multiple registrations by the same individual without written permission from College Confidential are not allowed. Similarly, users are not permitted to share accounts; do not allow other individuals (registered or not) to post under your user name. Re-registration by individuals who have been banned or denied posting privileges in the past is not allowed. Individuals who misrepresent themselves (e.g., posing as a student or parent when they are not, claiming a false affiliation with a college, etc.), or who allow others to post under their user name, or who register with multiple identities, or who re-register after having been banned, will be reported to the abuse department of their internet and/or email service provider and may be subject to civil or criminal action depending on the nature of their violation.
College Professionals. Some of our members may be admissions officials, administrators, or faculty at a college or university. Occasionally, a member may falsely claim to hold such a position. To protect our student and parent members, there are two ways that a higher education professional can post. First, that member can contact the forum administrator and present independently verifiable information as to personal identity and school; that individual can then receive "College Rep" status, which indicates that College Confidential has taken reasonable steps to verify the individual is from the claimed school. The school must be identified publicly, although the individual's personal info will not be disclosed. Second, if an individual prefers to remain anonymous, he or she will refrain from making claims (even if true) as to current or former position. E.g., "I am (or was) an admissions officer at a selective liberal arts college" would not be permitted. Such members will still develop a reputation for expertise, of course, if their body of posts demonstrates their knowledge. College Confidential members are advised NOT to publicly question the credentials of a new member claiming a university affiliation. Rather, they should call the post to the attention of the moderators or the administrator so that Website policy may be explained and any necessary verification take place.
Personal Information. When using College Confidential, please be certain that anything you disclose does not compromise your personal safety. Do not create a user name that incorporates personally identifiable information. Do not provide your name, phone number, social security number or any other personally identifying information to people you do not know. Do not continue any conversation online that makes you feel uncomfortable. Please report any incidents of harassment or attempts to discover personal information to the moderators.
Moderation. Website moderators and administrators may edit, move, and delete posts to make them more accessible or to bring them into compliance with our Terms of Services and Forum Rules. If an edit changes the context or meaning of the post in any significant way, moderators will usually include a note that the post has been edited in the post itself. All moderation, however, is performed on a "best efforts" basis - each poster is fully responsible for his/her own posts, and each visitor is responsible for what he/she reads. Offensive posts should be reported to the moderators, and every effort will be made to remove them as soon as possible. Out of respect for both moderators and policies, discussion of moderator actions and forum policies is welcomed via private message or e-mail; these issues are off-topic for the forums. College Confidential reserves the right at all times to disclose any information posted on the forums, or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, that in College Confidential's sole and absolute discretion are objectionable. You acknowledge that College Confidential reserves the right to monitor any and all information transmitted or received through the Website, including the forums, which information may be examined, recorded, copied, and used in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Editing and Deleting Posts; Deleting Accounts Posts are editable for a brief period following posting to allow correction of spelling errors, formatting, etc. After that, members may not edit their own posts. This prevents one member from editing an earlier post in a thread, rendering comments by others irrelevant or seemingly inaccurate. We cannot edit or delete posts upon request; please do not ask. Doing so would destroy the integrity of our archive and consume a huge amount of manpower. Therefore, please do not post personal data or other information that could prove to be a problem later. Once an account has been created, it cannot be deleted. College Confidential reserves the right to deactivate an account, however, existing content will not be removed from the forums.
Conditions of Use By using the Website, including the forums, you understand and agree that as a condition to such use, you will not: (i) post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, racial, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law; (ii) use offensive or inappropriate images for your avatar; (iii) post or transmit comments containing harassing or offensive language, using sexual references, sexual nicknames, racial slurs or rude or deliberately offensive comments (including as your user name) or engage in disruptive activity online, including excessive use of scripts, sound files, scrolling (repeating the same message over and over), or to knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware; (iv) post or transmit any information, software or other material which violates or infringes the rights of others, including material which is an invasion of privacy or publicity rights or which is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right, or derivative works without first obtaining permission from the owner; (v) post or transmit any information, software or other material which contains a virus, worm, Trojan horse or other code that has contaminating or destructive properties; (vi) post any information, software, or other material for commercial purposes; (vii) solicit other users to join or contribute money to any online service or other organization, advocate or attempt to get users to join in legal or illegal schemes; (viiI) impersonate any person or entity or falsely represent your professional or other affiliation with any person or entity; or (ix) use Website to collect personally identifiable information in violation of our Privacy Policy. You agree College Confidential, at its sole and absolute discretion, shall determine whether any information transmitted or received violates this provision.
Journalists Please visit our Online Press Center at https://www.collegeconfidential.com/policies/press/to take advantage of the many press resources College Confidential has to offer. Before posting on a College Confidential forum, journalists must first contact College Confidential at [email protected]. If you proceed without permission, it is likely that a moderator will remove the post. Further instructions for journalists are available in the Online Press Center. For members, the decision to be interviewed by a journalist is completely voluntary and at the sole discretion of the member. As with any other aspect of the Website, members should use caution and carefully consider sharing personally identifying information with anyone you do not know.
Copyright All content on the Website is the property of College Confidential. College Confidential reserves the right to publish and/or distribute such content, including discussion, commentary, and forum posts by members on the Website, in printed and electronic form, including media that may become available at a future date.
Copyright Infringement Policy If you believe that your work has been copied and posted on the Website in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide our Copyright Agent with the following information:
an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Website (and such description must be reasonably sufficient to enable College Confidential to find the alleged infringing material);
your address, telephone number and email address;
a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.
Notice of claims of copyright infringement should be provided to the College Confidential Copyright Agent at [email protected] or the following address:
Attn: Legal Dept. College Confidential 501 West Broadway Suite A150 San Diego, CA 92101
Indemnification. You agree to defend, indemnify and hold College Confidential, its affiliates, and its and their directors, officers, employees and agents harmless from any and all claims, liabilities, costs and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising in any way from your use of the Website, including the forums, any content or other material you place on the Website, or your breach or violation of the law or of these Terms of Service, the Forum Rules, and/or the Privacy Policy. College Confidential reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, and in such case, you agree to cooperate with College Confidential’s defense of such claim.
Disclaimer of Warranties. (a) The Website, including, without limitation, all content, functions and materials contained or available thereon, is provided "as is," "as available", without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, any warranty for information, data, data processing services, uptime or uninterrupted access, availability, accuracy, usefulness, or content of information, and any warranties of title, non-infringement, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We hereby disclaim any and all such warranties, express and implied. College Confidential also assumes no responsibility, and shall not be liable for, any damages to, or viruses that may infect, your computer equipment or other property on account of your access to or use of the Website or your downloading of any materials from the Website. If you are dissatisfied with the Website, your sole remedy is to discontinue using the Website. (b) We make third party opinions, advice, statements, offers, or other third party information or content available on the Website, including the forums ("Third Party Content"). All Third Party Content is the responsibility of the respective authors thereof and should not necessarily be relied upon. Such third party authors are solely responsible for such content. College Confidential does not: (i) guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any Third Party Content on the Website, or (ii) adopt, endorse or accept responsibility for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice, or statement made by any moderator or any party that appears on the Website. Under no circumstances will College Confidential or its affiliates be responsible or liable for any loss or damage resulting from your reliance on information or other content posted on or available from the Website.
Limitation of Liability. In no event, including but not limited to negligence, shall College Confidential, any of its affiliates, or any of their directors, officers, employees, agents or content or service providers (including moderators or administrators) (collectively, the "protected entities") be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages arising from, or directly or indirectly related to, the use of, or the inability to use, the Website or the content, materials and functions related thereto; your provision of information via the Website, including the forums; or in connection with any content posted, transmitted, exchanged or received by or on behalf of any user or other person on or through the Website, even if such protected entity has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some jurisdictions do not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages so some of the above limitations may not apply to certain users to the extent required by applicable law.
Applicable Law. We control and operate the Website from our offices in the United States of America. We do not represent that materials on the Website are appropriate for use in other locations. Persons who choose to access the Website from other locations do so on their own initiative, and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable. The laws of the State of California will govern these Terms of Service, as well as any claim that might arise between you and us, without regard to any conflict of law provisions.
Arbitration. All parties to these Terms of Service waive their respective rights to a trial by jury. The exclusive means of resolving any dispute or claim arising out of or relating to these Terms of Service (including any alleged breach thereof) or the Website shall be binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association. The one exception to the exclusivity of arbitration is that you have the right to bring an individual claim against College Confidential in a small-claims court of competent jurisdiction. But whether you choose arbitration or small-claims court, you may not under any circumstances commence or maintain any class action, class arbitration, or other representative action or proceeding against the College Confidential.(a) By using the Website, you agree to the above arbitration agreement. In doing so, you give up your right to go to court to assert or defend any claims between you and College Confidential or its affiliates (except for matters that may be taken to small-claims court). You also give up your right to participate in a class action or other class proceeding. Your rights will be determined by a neutral arbitrator, not a judge or jury. You are entitled to a fair hearing before the arbitrator. The arbitrator can grant any relief that a court can, but you should note that arbitration proceedings are usually simpler and more streamlined than trials and other judicial proceedings. Decisions by the arbitrator are enforceable in court and may be overturned by a court only for very limited reasons. (b) Any proceeding to enforce this arbitration agreement, including any proceeding to confirm, modify, or vacate an arbitration award, may be commenced in any court of competent jurisdiction. If this arbitration agreement is for any reason held to be unenforceable, any litigation against College Confidential (except for small-claims court actions) may be commenced only in the federal or state courts located in San Diego County, California. You hereby irrevocably consent to the jurisdiction of those courts for such purposes.
No Waiver. Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms of Service shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of the Terms of Service is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Terms of Service remain in full force and effect.
Termination. College Confidential may terminate, change, suspend or discontinue any aspect of the Website or the Website's services at any time. College Confidential may restrict, suspend or terminate your access to the Website and/or its services if we believe you are in breach of our Terms of Service, Forum Rules, Privacy Policy or applicable law, or for any other reason without notice or liability. Additionally, College Confidential may terminate the privileges of users who are repeat infringers of intellectual property rights.
Transparency Notice. College Confidential is strongly committed to providing students and parents using our website (hereinafter referred to as “you” and “your”) with tools to help them make successful choices about college admissions. Our site and its community provide aggregated information on schools and unique insights from the student perspective in help inform important academic decisions.
3rd Party Links. There may be links on our website, or in communications you receive from us, to third-party web sites or online features. They also may include third-party content that we do not control, maintain or endorse. We do not control any of these third-party sites or any of their content. Accordingly, you expressly acknowledge and agree that we are in no way responsible or liable for any of those third-party sites or online features. YOUR CORRESPONDENCE AND BUSINESS DEALINGS WITH THIRD PARTIES FOUND THROUGH OUR WEBSITE INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE PAYMENT AND DELIVERY OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES, AND ANY TERMS, CONDITIONS, WARRANTIES AND REPRESENTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH ANY SUCH DEALINGS, ARE SOLELY BETWEEN YOU AND THE THIRD PARTY.