Data Accuracy and Verification

PlainCollege presents data sourced from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard and other government sources. While we take reasonable steps to ingest, normalize, and refresh this data, upstream records may contain clerical errors, lag behind real-world changes, or omit relevant context. Government datasets are updated periodically, and there may be a lag between an update and when it appears on PlainCollege. You are solely responsible for verifying any fact that influences an educational, financial, career, or similarly consequential decision. Cross-reference the official source before acting on anything you read here.

Acceptable Use

You may browse, read, and share PlainCollege content for personal, journalistic, academic, and non-commercial research use. You may cite specific records with attribution and a link back to the page on plaincollege.com. You may not (a) systematically scrape, crawl, or download the dataset in bulk without prior written permission; (b) resell, sublicense, or redistribute derived data products that compete with PlainCollege; (c) use our pages to harass, defame, or misrepresent any individual or organization appearing in the data; (d) remove, obscure, or mislabel source attribution; or (e) attempt to bypass rate limits, security controls, or authentication mechanisms.

Plain-Language Editorial Role

PlainCollege combines raw public data with plain-language summaries, explainers, and comparisons. Narrative sections are drafted by our editorial team from official source data and reviewed for accuracy before publication. We do not modify the underlying numbers or filings, those are loaded directly from the upstream source. If you spot a summary that misreads the data, please email the correction link on our contact page.

Intellectual Property

The underlying public data surfaced on PlainCollege comes from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard and is in the public domain, you are free to use those raw facts. However, our site design, layout, navigation structure, original editorial copy, category taxonomies, comparison tables, and curated rankings are the copyrighted work of PlainCollege. These creative elements may not be reproduced in whole or substantial part without permission.

Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms of Use from time to time to reflect changes in our data sources, product features, legal environment, or advertising relationships. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date above and, when appropriate, surface a brief notice on the homepage. Continued use of the site after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised terms. We encourage you to revisit this page periodically.

Governing Law and Disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the jurisdiction in which PlainCollege is domiciled, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute arising from or relating to your use of PlainCollege will first be addressed through good-faith informal negotiation. If that fails, both parties agree to resolve the dispute in the courts with jurisdiction over PlainCollege's principal place of business. Nothing in these terms limits your statutory consumer-protection rights under applicable local law.

Legal Notices

For formal legal notices, DMCA takedown requests, subpoenas, law-enforcement requests, or correspondence regarding these terms, email legal@plaincollege.com. General questions, data corrections, and feedback should use the contact page so they reach the editorial team promptly.