Terms of Service

Quick Summary

• We publish educational data about U.S. trade and career colleges, sourced primarily from public IPEDS/NCES datasets and our editorial team.
• The Site is informational. It is not academic, financial, immigration, career, or legal advice, and it is not an admissions decision.
• Some listings, buttons, and program search widgets are sponsored or affiliate placements. We may earn a commission when you click a sponsored link or submit information to an advertising partner.
• Data may be incomplete, delayed, or contain errors. Always confirm important details (cost, accreditation, program availability) directly with the institution.
• You agree not to misuse the Site (scraping in violation of this Site's policies, impersonation, disruption, etc.).
• The Site is provided "as is" with no warranties, and our liability is limited as described below.

About the Site

TradeColleges.org is an independent directory of U.S. trade and career colleges. Most institutional data on the Site is derived from public sources — primarily the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and the O*NET program — together with editorial content produced by our team.

We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the O*NET program, or any of the colleges or programs listed on the Site. References to those institutions and their data are for informational purposes only.

Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Site. If you are between 13 and 18, you may use the Site only with the involvement of a parent or legal guardian. The Site is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.

Informational Use Only — Not Advice

The content on the Site (including college profiles, program guides, rankings, comparisons, blog articles, career profiles, and the "Find Your Trade" quiz) is provided for general informational purposes only. It is not:

• Academic, admissions, financial-aid, scholarship, or career-counseling advice;
• Legal, immigration, tax, or financial advice;
• A guarantee that any program, college, or career outcome described on the Site will be available, affordable, accredited, transferable, or suitable for your situation.

You are responsible for your own enrollment, financial, and career decisions. Always confirm key details — tuition and fees, accreditation, program length, transfer credit, licensure, and job-placement outcomes — directly with the institution and with the relevant accrediting or licensing authorities before relying on them.

Data Accuracy

We make a reasonable effort to keep institutional data accurate and current, but we cannot guarantee its accuracy, completeness, or timeliness. IPEDS data is typically published with a lag of one to several years, and reporting institutions occasionally restate or correct earlier data. Some pages may also contain typographical errors, mapping errors, or out-of-date links.

If you spot an error or want a page updated, email legal@tradecolleges.org or use the contact options on the Site.

Sponsored and Affiliate Placements

The Site contains advertising in several forms: sponsored program-search widgets, "Apply Now" or "Get Info" buttons, featured listings, and contextual school recommendations. Many of these are provided by third-party advertising partners, including education-marketing networks that route inquiries to colleges and program providers.

We may receive compensation when you click a sponsored link, submit a form to an advertising partner, or are matched with a school through one of these placements. This is how we fund the Site. Sponsored placements may influence which institutions appear in widgets and in what order, but they do not influence our editorial rankings, IPEDS-derived statistics, blog content, or methodology pages.

Submitting an inquiry through a sponsored widget creates a relationship between you and the third-party partner (and, ultimately, the school) — not between you and us. Read the partner's privacy and consent disclosures before submitting any information.

Third-Party Sites and Content

The Site links to external websites — including college websites, government sources, advertising partners, and reference materials. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content, products, services, accuracy, accessibility, or privacy practices. Your use of any third-party site is at your own risk and subject to that site's own terms and policies.

Acceptable Use

When using the Site, you agree not to:

• Use the Site for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable law or regulation;
• Scrape, harvest, mirror, or systematically download substantial portions of the Site in a manner that conflicts with our robots.txt, rate limits, or other technical or written restrictions;
• Reverse-engineer or attempt to extract source code or non-public data from the Site;
• Interfere with, probe, or disrupt the Site, its infrastructure, or its security (including denial-of-service or vulnerability testing without our prior written consent);
• Submit content that is unlawful, defamatory, harassing, infringing, deceptive, or that contains malware;
• Impersonate any person or organization, or misrepresent your affiliation with anyone;
• Use automated agents to submit forms or feedback on the Site;
• Use the Site to send unsolicited commercial messages, or to scrape contact information for that purpose.

We reserve the right to block, rate-limit, or revoke access to anyone who appears to violate these rules.

User Submissions

The Site offers a few interactive features — for example, blog post thumbs-up / thumbs-down feedback, newsletter sign-up, and the contact form. By submitting any feedback, suggestions, corrections, or other content through these features (collectively, "Submissions"), you:

• Confirm that the Submission is yours to share and does not infringe anyone's rights;
• Grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide, sublicensable license to use, copy, store, display, and create derivative works from the Submission for purposes of operating and improving the Site (for example, aggregating thumbs-up/down counts or quoting a correction in a blog post);
• Acknowledge that we are under no obligation to use, retain, or respond to any Submission.

Please do not include sensitive personal information, login credentials, financial details, or anything you would not want a stranger to read in a Submission. See the Privacy Policy for what we collect and how it is used.

Intellectual Property

Editorial text, original images, design, code, rankings methodology, and the overall selection and arrangement of the Site are owned by us or licensed to us and are protected by U.S. and international copyright, trademark, and other intellectual-property laws. You may view the Site for personal, non-commercial purposes. Any other use — including republishing material, building competing directories from our pages, or removing source attribution — requires our written permission.

Data derived from U.S. government sources (IPEDS, BLS, O*NET) is itself in the public domain. The way we structure, normalize, present, and supplement that data on the Site, however, is ours.

Trade names, college names, and logos referenced on the Site belong to their respective owners and are used for identification only.

DMCA / Copyright Concerns

If you believe content on the Site infringes your copyright, send a notice that complies with 17 U.S.C. § 512(c) to legal@tradecolleges.org. Include: identification of the work and the allegedly infringing material (with a URL), your contact information, a statement of good-faith belief that the use is not authorized, a statement under penalty of perjury that the information is accurate and that you are authorized to act, and your physical or electronic signature.

Disclaimers

The Site and all content on it are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties — including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, completeness, availability, and uninterrupted operation.

Decisions you make based on the Site (including which colleges to apply to, which programs to enroll in, how much to spend, or which career to pursue) are your own. We are not your advisor.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, in no event will we, our affiliates, contributors, or service providers be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages — including lost profits, lost data, lost opportunities, tuition costs, or career outcomes — arising out of or relating to your use of the Site, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Our total cumulative liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to the Site will not exceed one hundred U.S. dollars ($100). Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, so portions of this section may not apply to you.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us harmless from and against any claims, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to: (a) your use of the Site in violation of these Terms or applicable law; (b) any Submission you provide; or (c) your infringement of any third party's rights.

Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Site at any time, with or without notice, for any reason — including suspected violation of these Terms. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, and governing law) will continue to apply after termination.

Changes to the Site and to These Terms

We may change, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Site at any time. We may also update these Terms from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the latest revision. Material changes will be posted on this page. Your continued use of the Site after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

Governing Law and Venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. The exclusive venue for any dispute arising out of or relating to the Site or these Terms will be the state or federal courts located in Delaware, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there. Nothing in this section limits any non-waivable rights you may have under the laws of your home state.

Miscellaneous

• Entire agreement: These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Site.
• Severability: If any provision is held unenforceable, the rest of the Terms remain in effect.
• No waiver: Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
• Assignment: You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them in connection with a sale, merger, or reorganization.
• No agency: Nothing in these Terms creates any agency, partnership, employment, or joint-venture relationship between you and us.

Contact Us

TradeColleges.org
Email: legal@tradecolleges.org