Terms of Service

Updated February 1, 2024

Thanks for using College Kickstart! These terms of service along with our Privacy Policy (collectively, “Terms”) govern your use and access to the Services ("Services") provided by College Kickstart LLC through our Website. By using our Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms.

Eligibility

College Kickstart is a web-based planning application designed to help college-bound teens, parents, independent college consultants and high school counselors better navigate college admissions. You are eligible to use the Services if you are an individual who is 18 years or older residing in the United States or a school or school district located in the United States.

If you are between the ages of 13 and 17, you need your parent or legal guardian to consent to your use of the Services in accordance with these Terms and to be responsible for your use of the Services. If you are younger than age 13, you may not use the Services. Regardless of eligibility, we reserve the right to refuse use of the Services at our sole discretion.

Your Responsibilities

You agree to use Services for their intended purpose and not misuse the Services. Examples of misuse of the Services include:

  • Providing untruthful account information.
  • Probing the vulnerability of any system or network or breaching or circumventing its security or authentication measures.
  • Accessing, tampering with, or using non-public areas or parts of the Services or areas where you have not been granted access or accessing or searching the Services through non-publicly supported interfaces (e.g., “scraping”).
  • Interfering with or disrupting any user, host or network in any manner, including by sending a virus, overloading, flooding, spamming or mail-bombing any part of the Services or spoofing or phishing others.
  • Sending unsolicited and not previously approved communications, promotions or advertisements, or spam.
  • Selling, transferring, assigning or sharing your right to use the Services in any way.
  • Using automated or other means to create accounts in bulk or to access the Services other than by using our official interface and/or APIs.
  • Storing, creating and/or sharing materials that are unlawfully pornographic or indecent, advocate bigotry, religious, racial or ethnic hatred, are fraudulent, misleading or violate the rights of others.
  • Using the Services in violation of applicable law.

You are also responsible for understanding the limitations of our Services and recognize the following regarding the Services:

  • The Services are intended to provide directional guidance, not guarantees of admission.
  • The Services are based purely on quantitative data, such as your standardized test scores and institutions’ admissions data, and do not factor in important qualitative considerations such as the strength of your recommendations and personal statements, special talents that you have or special circumstances like being a first generation college student or underrepresented minority.

Always use our Services in conjunction with an experienced professional better able to consider your overall candidacy, such as your high school counselor or a college consultant.

  • You recognize that our ability to deliver our Services is limited by the timeliness, specificity and accuracy of the data we use to carry out our analysis. This includes your personal information and other generally non-public information (“Personal Information”) and the admissions data provided by each of the institutions we cover. For example, most institutions report admissions data well after the completion of an admissions cycle.

Depending on when you use our Services and the particular institutions on your list, the admissions data may not be for the current year. Alternatively, though an institution might report an overall admission rate, the admission rates for departments/majors within that institution may be drastically different. To help you understand where we get our information, we publish source data references for each school on your list.

Your Subscription

When you sign up to use our Services through our website or separate subscription agreement, you may be assigned or asked to select a subscription plan ("Plan"). The Plan defines the Services that you are authorized to access throughout the subscribed term (“Subscription Period”). Each Plan may vary in terms of scale, scope, the number and type of authorized users, Subscription Period and pricing ("Fee").

Unless stated otherwise, a Plan entitles you (or each of your authorized users) to use our Services for a single application cycle that runs from January 1 to December 31 of a single calendar year. During the Subscription Period, there is no limit to the number of times a user may modify/refine their college plan.

Because it is possible to take full advantage of our Services in a very short period of time, your Fee is billed up front and paid in full in advance of having access and use of the Services and is nonrefundable. You are responsible for all taxes. You can cancel your subscription at any time but we do not issue refunds or prorations.

Your subscription provides you the right to use the Services in accordance with these Terms. No other rights in the Services are granted and we retain all ownership rights, including all trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, proprietary rights and other intellectual property rights, title and interest in the Services.

Third-Party Websites or Services

Our Services may contain links to third-party websites or services that are not owned or controlled by College Kickstart and as described in more detail in the Privacy Policy. Access to or use of third-party sites or services are at your own risk. We are not responsible for any loss or damage of any sort relating to your dealings with these parties.

We encourage you to be aware of when you leave the Service, and to read the terms and conditions and privacy policy of any third-party website or service that you visit.

Confidentiality

From time to time, information may be provided by you or us ("Discloser) to the other ("Receiver"), whether orally or in writing, that is designated as confidential ("Confidential Information"). Such information includes but is not limited to your Personal Information or the Personal Information of the students you serve, your results, access to new or improved Services before they are made available to the general public, and the terms of your agreement with us.

Confidential Information does not include any information that is publicly available or known to the Receiver prior to the disclosure.

When Confidential Information is disclosed, the Receiver agrees to: (i) protect the confidentiality of the Confidential Information using the same degree of care it uses with its own confidential information of similar nature, (ii) not use any Confidential Information for any purpose outside the scope of these Terms, and (iii) not disclose Confidential Information to any third party until it becomes publicly available.

From time to time we may invite you to test new or improved Services before they are made available to the general public. Should you agree to participate in this type of testing, you agree to not disclose any information about the features and functions of the pre-released Services without express written permission from College Kickstart LLC or until the new and/or improved Services have been made generally available, whichever is sooner.

Indemnity

College Kickstart agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless You, and your trustees, officers, directors, employees, contractors and agents from and against any and all claims, causes of action, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including attorneys’ fees and costs) and all amounts paid in settlement arising from or relating to the Service directly infringing the copyright, patent, trademark, and other intellectual and proprietary rights of a third party.

College Kickstart shall have no indemnification obligation, and You shall indemnify College Kickstart under these Terms, for claims arising from any alleged infringement related to the combination of the Service with any of Your or any of Your licensor’s products, service, hardware, or business process(es), so long as such use was not authorized or directed by College Kickstart in writing.

College Kickstart’s indemnifying obligations are expressly conditioned upon each of the following: (i) You will promptly notify College Kickstart in writing of any threatened or actual claim; (ii) College Kickstart will have sole control of the defense and settlement, if any, of any claim giving rise to the above indemnity obligations; provided, however, that no settlement will be binding against You without Your prior written consent; and (iii) You will cooperate with College Kickstart to facilitate the defense and settlement, if any, of any claim.

This section states the entire liability of College Kickstart and the sole and exclusive remedy of You and the other indemnified persons listed above for infringement claims and actions related thereto.

Disclaimer of Warranties

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SERVICES AND ANY INFORMATION, GUIDANCE OR RECOMMENDATIONS PROVIDED THROUGH THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY. COLLEGE KICKSTART SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING OUT OF COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.

COLLEGE KICKSTART DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE OR COMPLETELY SECURE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED THROUGH THE SERVICES WILL BE ACCURATE, COMPLETE OR CURRENT. YOU ASSUME ALL RISK ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES.

Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL COLLEGE KICKSTART, ITS AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AGENTS, LICENSORS OR SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO ACCESS OR USE, THE SERVICES, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STATUTE OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, EVEN IF COLLEGE KICKSTART HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, COLLEGE KICKSTART’S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICES OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO COLLEGE KICKSTART FOR THE SERVICES GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM DURING THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100).

Termination

You may stop using the Services at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Services at any time, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe: (a) you have violated these Terms; (b) your use of the Services creates risk or possible legal exposure for College Kickstart or others; or (c) providing the Services to you is no longer commercially viable.

Upon termination, the rights granted to you under these Terms will immediately cease. Sections that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including sections regarding ownership, confidentiality, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity, governing law and dispute resolution.

Changes to the Services or Terms

We may modify the Services from time to time. We may also revise these Terms. If a revision is material, we will post notice on our Website or notify you by email before the revised Terms become effective. By continuing to use the Services after the revised Terms become effective, you agree to be bound by the updated Terms.

Miscellaneous

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict of laws principles. Any claim or dispute arising out of or relating to the Services or these Terms shall be brought exclusively in a court of competent jurisdiction located in Alameda County, California, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, that provision will be limited to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect. Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be deemed a waiver of such right or provision. These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and College Kickstart with respect to the Services and supersede any prior agreements on that subject.

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at support@collegekickstart.com.