TERMS OF SERVICE

These Terms of Service (these "Terms") govern your access to and use of the services of Candid College Advisors, LLC, a New Jersey limited liability company located in Montvale, New Jersey ("CCA," "we," or "us"). Accessing or using candidcollegeadvisors.com, the CCA client portal, or CCA's advising services (together, the "Services") constitutes acceptance of these Terms and of CCA's Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference. If you or your family signs an engagement agreement with CCA, that agreement governs the advising relationship; to the extent these Terms conflict with a signed engagement agreement, the engagement agreement controls.

Account Registration; Record of Acceptance. When you create an account, you must affirmatively indicate your agreement to these Terms by selecting a checkbox stating: "I have read and agree to the Candid College Advisors Terms of Service and Privacy Policy." The checkbox is not pre-selected, and an account cannot be created without selecting it. CCA records the date and time of each acceptance and the version of these Terms and of the Privacy Policy then in effect, and retains that record as described in the Privacy Policy. That record is evidence of your agreement to these Terms.

CCA provides one-on-one college-admissions advising to students and families, including candid assessment of a student's admissions profile, college-list development, essay strategy and coaching, application planning, interview preparation, and related guidance, supported by a client portal through which families track college lists, deadlines, documents, and meetings. The specific services included in and excluded from any advising engagement are set out in the applicable engagement agreement and its exhibits.

3.1 Adults. You must be at least eighteen (18) years of age to hold a parent or guardian account.

3.2 Students. A student between thirteen (13) and seventeen (17) years of age may hold a portal account only after the student's parent or guardian has provided written consent as part of an engagement agreement. The consenting parent or guardian is responsible for the student's use of the Services. The Services are not available to children under thirteen (13) years of age.

3.3 Account Responsibilities. You agree to supply accurate account information, to safeguard the confidentiality of your login credentials, and to give CCA prompt notice of any suspected unauthorized use of your account.

Decisions regarding admission, scholarships, and financial aid are made solely by the institutions and organizations to which a student applies. CCA makes no representation, warranty, guarantee, or assurance of any kind regarding admission to any institution, any scholarship or financial-aid award, or any other outcome, and no statement by CCA or any advisor shall be construed as such a guarantee. CCA's commitment is to provide honest assessment and professional advising services, not to achieve any particular result.

The Services are advisory in nature. Essays, applications, and other admissions materials must be the student's own work. CCA advisors provide strategic guidance, critique, and editorial feedback; they do not author application materials. You agree not to request that CCA prepare application content on a student's behalf and not to use the Services to misrepresent to any institution a student's academic record, credentials, or achievements, or the authorship of any application material. CCA may terminate an engagement or account for violation of this Section.

You agree not to: (a) access or attempt to access another family's account or records; (b) probe, disrupt, or circumvent the security of the platform; (c) upload malicious code or unlawful content; (d) copy, scrape, or resell the Services or their content; or (e) use the Services for any purpose other than your family's advising engagement.

Portions of the Services use Google APIs. You may sign in with Google. CCA maintains a dedicated Google Drive folder for each student's advising documents in CCA's own institutional Google Workspace account; the Services do not request permission to create, read, edit, or delete files in your personal Google Drive. By connecting a Google account, you authorize the access described in Section 5 of CCA's Privacy Policy, and your use of Google services remains subject to Google's own terms. You may revoke the platform's access to your Google account at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions; revocation disables signing in with Google but does not affect a student's advising documents, which are maintained in CCA's own Google Workspace account, and does not end an advising engagement. CCA's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

The fees for advising services, together with payment schedules and refund terms, are established in each family's signed engagement agreement before work begins. Initial consultations are provided at no charge and without obligation.

9.1 Student Materials. Students own their essays, applications, and other personal materials. You grant CCA a limited, non-exclusive license to store, reproduce, and use those materials for the sole purpose of performing the Services. CCA does not use a student's name, essays, admissions outcomes, or other personal information in its marketing, advertising, or promotional materials without prior written consent from the family.

9.2 CCA Content. The platform, its design, and CCA's advising materials, frameworks, and guides are the property of CCA. You may use them solely in connection with your family's advising engagement and may not redistribute them or use them commercially.

CCA treats the information a family shares in an advising engagement, including academic records, essay drafts, meeting notes, and information concerning family circumstances, as confidential, and handles student education records in alignment with FERPA principles, as described in Section 10 of its Privacy Policy. CCA discloses student records to third parties only with written consent, except as required by law or as necessary to protect the safety of a student.

The platform is built on third-party infrastructure identified in Section 8 of CCA's Privacy Policy and may contain links to external resources, including college and testing-agency websites. CCA is not responsible for third-party services, and your use of them is governed by their own terms and privacy policies. CCA's public website uses first-party cookies to keep portal users signed in and to measure which of CCA's outreach campaigns reach families, as described in CCA's Privacy Policy; CCA does not use the website for third-party advertising.

You may close your account at any time by written notice to CCA, except that while an advising engagement is active, a student under eighteen (18) years of age may close an account only with the written confirmation of the consenting parent or guardian. Termination of an advising engagement itself is governed by the applicable engagement agreement. CCA may suspend or terminate access to the Services for a material breach of these Terms, including the academic-integrity and acceptable-use provisions above. Upon termination, CCA handles personal information as described in the retention and deletion provisions of its Privacy Policy and will return student materials on request.

THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, AND EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY PROVIDED IN A SIGNED ENGAGEMENT AGREEMENT, CCA DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE OPERATION. CCA'S ADVISING REFLECTS PROFESSIONAL JUDGMENT BASED ON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED TO IT AND DOES NOT WARRANT ANY OUTCOME (SEE SECTION 4).

14.1 Limitation. Except as provided in Section 14.2: (a) CCA will not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost opportunities (including admissions, scholarship, or financial-aid outcomes), arising from use of the Services; and (b) CCA's aggregate liability for all claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services shall not exceed the amounts you paid CCA for the Services in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

14.2 New Jersey Rights Preserved. Sections 13 and 14 do not limit, disclaim, or waive any right or remedy that New Jersey law does not permit to be limited, disclaimed, or waived, including any non-waivable right or remedy under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, N.J.S.A. 56:8-1 et seq. Those rights and remedies remain fully available notwithstanding anything in these Terms.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Jersey, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any action or proceeding arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts sitting in Bergen County, New Jersey, and the parties consent to the jurisdiction and venue of those courts. Prior to commencing any action, the parties shall first attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute through direct negotiation.

16.1 Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that these Terms otherwise remain in full force and effect, and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

16.2 No Waiver. CCA's failure to enforce any provision of these Terms is not a waiver of that provision or of any other provision, and no waiver is effective unless made in writing by CCA.

16.3 Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms, or any right or obligation under them, without CCA's prior written consent, and any attempted assignment in violation of this Section is void. CCA may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, reorganization, or sale of all or substantially all of its assets, or to a successor that agrees to be bound by them, and will give account holders notice of any such assignment. These Terms bind and benefit the parties and their permitted successors and assigns.

16.4 Survival. Sections 4, 5, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, and this Section 16, together with any other provision that by its nature is intended to survive, remain in effect after the closing of an account or the termination or expiration of an advising engagement.

16.5 Entire Agreement. These Terms, together with CCA's Privacy Policy and any signed engagement agreement, constitute the entire agreement between you and CCA concerning the Services and supersede all prior or contemporaneous understandings on that subject. In the event of a conflict, a signed engagement agreement controls over these Terms.

16.6 Headings. Section headings are for convenience of reference only and do not affect the interpretation of these Terms.

If CCA updates these Terms, CCA will post the revised version on the website with a new effective date and will notify account holders by email of material changes at least thirty (30) days before they take effect. For material changes, CCA will also require each account holder to accept the revised Terms in the client portal at the account holder's next sign-in on or after the effective date, and will record the date, time, and version accepted. Continued use of the Services after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

Questions about these Terms may be directed to: