Legal

Terms of Service

Last updated: August 30, 2026 · Effective: August 30, 2026

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) form a binding contract between you and FrankVenture LLC, a Texas limited liability company (“FrankVenture,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), governing your access to and use of the College App Insider website, applications, and related services (collectively, the “Service”). By accessing or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By creating an account, accessing the Service, or clicking “I agree” (or any similar affirmative action), you represent that (a) you have read and understand these Terms, (b) you have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract, and (c) you accept these Terms on your own behalf or, if applicable, on behalf of the minor child you are assisting.

2. The Service

The Service is an informational and organizational platform that helps high-school students and their families research colleges, organize college applications, draft essays and narratives, track deadlines and recommendations, and review estimates of admissions chances and post-graduation outcomes based on publicly available data. The Service is an information tool, not professional advice.

The Service is not, and is not intended to substitute for:

• Advice from a licensed school counselor or independent educational consultant;
• Legal, financial, tax, or accounting advice;
• Mental health counseling or therapy;
• The official requirements, policies, or decisions of any college, university, scholarship sponsor, or governmental agency.

The Service does not write your application. It does not draft, ghostwrite, or submit essays or application content on your behalf. See Section 8.1.

You are solely responsible for verifying every deadline, requirement, score range, program offering, financial figure, and policy directly with each school you apply to.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information, contact us at legal@collegeappinsider.com and we will delete it.

3.1 Who may purchase

Paid access may be purchased only by a person who is 18 years of age or older and who has the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract. At checkout you affirm that you meet both requirements. The adult who pays is the contracting party for that purchase and for these Terms as they apply to it, whether the adult is the applicant, a parent, or a legal guardian.

3.2 Applicants under 18

An applicant between 13 and 18 may use the Service, and we expect many will. If you are under 18, you represent that a parent or legal guardian has reviewed these Terms, consented to your use of the Service, and agreed to be responsible for any purchase. A person under 18 may not purchase paid access, and any attempt to do so is void. Where an applicant under 18 uses the Service within a household connected to a paying adult, that adult is the contracting party for the purchase and the applicant is a permitted user.

4. Accounts and Security

You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information when creating an account and to keep that information up to date. You are responsible for safeguarding your password and for all activity under your account. Notify us immediately of any unauthorized access or breach of security. We may suspend or terminate accounts at our discretion for breach of these Terms or for conduct we reasonably consider harmful to the Service or other users.

5. Purchases, Access Term, and Refunds

Some features require paid access. Prices and included features are described on the Service. Paid access is sold as a single payment for a fixed term, not a subscription. Specifically:

• One payment. You pay once. The amount and the term are shown before you pay and on your receipt.
• Twelve months of access. Paid access runs for twelve (12) months from the date of purchase. The end date is shown in your account settings.
• Nothing renews. There is no automatic renewal, no recurring charge, and no subscription to cancel. We will not charge your payment method again unless you make a new purchase. When the term ends, your account returns to the free tier and your saved data remains available to you.
• Seven-day refund. If you request a refund within seven (7) days of your purchase, we will refund it in full. Email hello@collegeappinsider.com from the address on the account. A refund ends paid access at the time it is issued. After seven days, amounts paid are non-refundable except where required by applicable law or expressly granted by us in writing.
• Price changes. We may change prices for future purchases at any time. A price change never affects a term you have already paid for.

Payment processing is handled by Stripe, Inc. By providing payment information, you agree to Stripe's consumer terms and authorize Stripe to charge the payment method you select for the one-time amount shown at checkout.

5.1 Fair use of coached features

Paid access includes the coaching, review, and practice features without a per-essay or per-item quota. Those features carry real cost for each request, so they are subject to a daily fair-use ceiling, currently 75 coaching requests per person per day, which resets at midnight UTC. You keep your work if you reach it, and you may continue the next day. We may adjust the ceiling to keep the Service available to everyone, and we will state the current number here. This limit exists to prevent automated or abusive use, not to ration ordinary work: a full day of drafting and revision sits well inside it.

6. License to Use the Service

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for your personal, non-commercial use in connection with researching and organizing college applications. You may not (a) copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any portion of the Service or its contents; (b) reverse engineer the Service; (c) use any robot, scraper, or automated means to access or extract data; (d) bypass any rate limits, security controls, or access restrictions; (e) resell or commercially exploit the Service or its data; or (f) use the Service in violation of any applicable law.

7. Your Content

The Service lets you create and store content including school lists, essays, activity descriptions, narrative drafts, notes, deadlines, recommendation tracking, and other application materials (“User Content”). You retain ownership of your User Content. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, and display your User Content solely as needed to operate, secure, and improve the Service for you and to share with collaborators or counselors you explicitly invite.

You are solely responsible for the legality, accuracy, and integrity of your User Content, and for backing it up. You may export your User Content using the export tools in your account at any time. We may decline to host or display content that violates these Terms, applicable law, or the rights of a third party.

8. Acceptable Use

You will not, and will not permit anyone else to, use the Service to:

• Submit information you do not have the right to submit;
• Misrepresent your identity, age, academic record, or test scores;
• Harass, threaten, or impersonate any other person;
• Upload malware, viruses, or any other harmful code;
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service or any related systems;
• Engage in any activity that interferes with or disrupts the Service.

8.1 Academic integrity and authorship of your application

The Service is a coaching and organizational tool, in the same category as an independent educational consultant, a test-prep course, or a school counselor's guidance. It is built so that the work stays yours: the essay tools ask questions, give feedback, score drafts against a published rubric, and suggest what to revise. They are designed and instructed not to write application essays or application content for you, and we do not offer a ghostwriting service.

You remain solely responsible for the content, originality, and truthfulness of everything you submit to any college, scholarship sponsor, or application platform, and for the accuracy of any attestation or certification you sign as part of an application. You are also responsible for knowing and following the rules of each institution and application platform you use, including any limits they place on outside assistance. Those rules vary by institution and can change, and we do not monitor or enforce them for you.

Do not use the Service to submit work that is not your own, to misstate your record or circumstances, or in any way that violates an institution's stated policy on assistance or academic integrity. Doing so is a violation of these Terms, and the consequences of an integrity violation in an admissions process, including rescission of an offer, rest with you.

9. Intellectual Property

The Service, including all software, design, text, charts, methodology pages, content compilations, trademarks, logos, and brand elements, is owned by FrankVenture LLC and its licensors and is protected by copyright, trademark, trade-dress, and other laws. Copyright © FrankVenture LLC. All rights reserved. The names “College App Insider,” “FrankVenture,” and related marks are owned by FrankVenture LLC. Nothing in these Terms grants you any right to use those marks except in connection with your authorized use of the Service. We welcome feedback and ideas, and any feedback or suggestions you submit may be used by us without compensation or attribution.

10. Data Sources, Estimates, and the “Chance Estimate”

The Service displays data drawn from public sources including the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Common Application Member Requirements file, individual schools' published Common Data Sets, and our own curated reference sets. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, currency, or availability of any data or estimate displayed. Schools change deadlines, fees, policies, scholarship programs, application requirements, and admission criteria frequently and without notice; you must verify everything directly with each school.

The “chance estimate,” “chance score,” “Reach/Target/Likely/Safety” bands, and any similar projection displayed by the Service are directional educational estimates only. They are computed from publicly reported school averages or band statistics, your self-reported stats, and a small number of explainable adjustments (early-decision multipliers, demonstrated-interest weighting). They are NOT:

• Predictions or guarantees of admission, denial, scholarship, or aid;
• An evaluation of your essays, recommendations, hooks, demonstrated interest depth, or institutional priorities;
• A substitute for a school counselor, college consultant, or the actual admissions process;
• A reflection of major-specific admit rates, which can be substantially different from the school's overall acceptance rate;
• A reflection of cycle-to-cycle volatility, which has been substantial at many schools.

Cost-of-attendance, financial-aid, and earnings figures are similarly directional. For your specific family's likely cost, use each school's Net Price Calculator and consult a financial aid officer or independent advisor. Our methodology is documented in detail at /methodology and incorporated into these Terms by reference.

11. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, FRANKVENTURE LLC DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTY ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT (a) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS; (b) THE DATA OR ESTIMATES DISPLAYED ARE ACCURATE OR CURRENT; (c) ANY DEADLINE, REQUIREMENT, OR FEE SHOWN MATCHES THE SCHOOL'S CURRENT INFORMATION; OR (d) THE SERVICE WILL ACHIEVE ANY PARTICULAR OUTCOME, INCLUDING ADMISSION TO ANY SCHOOL, RECEIPT OF ANY SCHOLARSHIP, OR ANY POST-ENROLLMENT RESULT.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties; in those jurisdictions the foregoing exclusions apply only to the maximum extent permitted by law.

12. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, FRANKVENTURE LLC AND ITS AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, USE, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY ADMISSIONS DECISION, ANY MISSED DEADLINE, ANY INCORRECT FEE OR REQUIREMENT, ANY THIRD-PARTY OUTAGE (INCLUDING OUTAGES OF THE COMMON APPLICATION OR ANY SCHOOL'S APPLICATION PORTAL), OR ANY FINANCIAL CONSEQUENCE OF YOUR RELIANCE ON DATA, ESTIMATES, OR RECOMMENDATIONS DISPLAYED BY THE SERVICE.

OUR TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (a) THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID US FOR THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM OR (b) FIFTY U.S. DOLLARS ($50.00 USD).

These limitations form an essential basis of the bargain between you and FrankVenture LLC. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability; in those jurisdictions the foregoing limitations apply only to the maximum extent permitted by law.

13. Dispute Resolution: Binding Arbitration and Class-Action Waiver

Please read this section carefully. It limits how you can pursue a claim against us.

13.1 Informal Resolution

Before filing any arbitration claim, you must send a written notice describing the nature and basis of the claim and your requested relief to legal@collegeappinsider.com with a copy by U.S. mail to FrankVenture LLC at the address listed in Section 18. You and FrankVenture agree to attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute informally for at least thirty (30) days from receipt of the notice before initiating arbitration.

13.2 Binding Arbitration

Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service that is not resolved informally will be settled by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules then in effect, except as modified by these Terms. The arbitration will be conducted by a single arbitrator. The seat of arbitration is Dallas County, Texas, although either party may elect remote (telephonic or videoconference) proceedings. The arbitrator's decision is final and binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction. Each party will bear its own attorneys' fees and costs unless the AAA Consumer Rules or applicable law provide otherwise.

13.3 Class-Action Waiver

YOU AND FRANKVENTURE AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, COLLECTIVE, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. THE ARBITRATOR MAY NOT CONSOLIDATE OR JOIN MORE THAN ONE PERSON'S CLAIMS AND MAY NOT OTHERWISE PRESIDE OVER ANY FORM OF A CONSOLIDATED, REPRESENTATIVE, OR CLASS PROCEEDING. THE ARBITRATOR MAY AWARD RELIEF ONLY IN FAVOR OF THE INDIVIDUAL PARTY SEEKING RELIEF AND ONLY TO THE EXTENT NECESSARY TO PROVIDE RELIEF NECESSITATED BY THAT PARTY'S INDIVIDUAL CLAIM.

13.4 Small-Claims Carve-Out and Equitable Relief

Either party may bring an individual action in small-claims court for any dispute that qualifies under the rules of that court. Either party may also seek injunctive or other equitable relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to protect intellectual property rights, regardless of arbitration.

13.5 30-Day Right to Reject Arbitration

You may opt out of the arbitration agreement and class-action waiver in this Section 13 by sending a written notice of rejection within thirty (30) days of first agreeing to these Terms to legal@collegeappinsider.com. The notice must include your name, the email address associated with your account, and a clear statement that you reject the arbitration agreement. If you opt out, Sections 13.2 and 13.3 will not apply to you, but the rest of these Terms remain in effect.

13.6 Governing Law and Forum

These Terms and any dispute between you and FrankVenture are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Subject to Section 13.2, you and FrankVenture consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in Dallas County, Texas for any matter not subject to arbitration.

14. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless FrankVenture LLC and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claim, demand, loss, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to (a) your use or misuse of the Service; (b) your User Content; (c) your violation of these Terms; or (d) your violation of any law or third-party right. We may, at our option, assume the exclusive defense of any matter for which you owe indemnification, in which case you will cooperate fully with our defense.

15. Termination

You may terminate your account at any time through the account settings or by emailing us. We may suspend or terminate your account at our discretion for violation of these Terms, suspected fraud, or any conduct we reasonably consider harmful. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including IP, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, and dispute resolution) survive.

16. Email Communications, Browser Notifications, and Cookies

Email. We send transactional email tied to your account (sign-up, password reset, billing). With your opt-in we also send a weekly digest and deadline reminders. Every marketing email contains an unsubscribe link and a List-Unsubscribe header; you can disable any optional email category from your account settings at any time.

Browser notifications. If you opt in from the browser-notifications toggle in your settings, we deliver web push notifications that include a weekly digest, real-time alerts when you forward application updates into your workspace, and reminders as deadlines approach. You can disable notifications at any time by turning the toggle off, by clearing site permissions in your browser, or by unsubscribing from your operating system's notification center.

Cookies and similar technologies. Our use of cookies, browser local storage, and analytics tooling is governed by the cookie banner you saw on first visit and by our Privacy Policy. Essential cookies (session, security, preference storage) are required for the Service. Analytics and marketing categories are off by default.

17. Changes to the Service or These Terms

We may update, suspend, or discontinue features of the Service at any time. We may also update these Terms by posting an updated version with a revised “Last updated” date. Material changes will be communicated by email to your account address or by a banner on the Service. Continued use of the Service after a change becomes effective constitutes acceptance.

18. Notices and Contact

Notices to you may be sent by email to your account email address or posted on the Service. Notices to us must be sent to legal@collegeappinsider.com with a copy by U.S. mail to:

FrankVenture LLC
Attn: Legal
Dallas, TX 75230

For copyright takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, send notice to the same address with the subject line “DMCA Notice” and the information required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3).

19. Third-Party Services

The Service incorporates third-party processors including Cloudflare (hosting and edge), Neon (database), Resend (transactional email), Stripe (one-time payment processing), Anthropic (intelligent features), and PostHog (product analytics). Your use of those features is also subject to the providers' own terms and privacy practices. The Service may also link to or integrate with sites we do not control (including the Common Application, College Scorecard, and individual schools' websites). We are not responsible for the content, policies, or availability of those sites.

20. General

These Terms together with the Privacy Policy and any additional terms applicable to a specific feature constitute the entire agreement between you and FrankVenture regarding the Service. If any provision is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force, and the unenforceable provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted by law. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later. You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent; we may assign these Terms to an affiliate or to a successor in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation. There are no third-party beneficiaries to these Terms.

Questions about these Terms? Email legal@collegeappinsider.com.

Copyright © 2026 FrankVenture LLC. All rights reserved.

See also: Privacy Policy · Methodology