College Board Terms of Service for CSS Profile® and IDOC (Consumer)

You are permitted to access and use the features and functionality of INSTITUTIONAL DOCUMENTATION SERVICE ("IDOC") or CSS PROFILE® ("CSS Profile"), as applicable, solely to provide financial information or documentation to a higher education institution or scholarship program (“Institution”) seeking to process your application for financial aid or a scholarship award and solely in accordance with the user information provided online and by your selected Institution(s) ("Permitted Use"). "You" or "you" means a student or their parent(s) or other legal guardian(s).
By clicking the "Agree" button (CSS Profile) or the acceptance box (IDOC), You agree that you have read and understand these Terms of Service and that your use of the IDOC or CSS Profile services conforms to them. If You do not agree to these Terms of Service, DO NOT click on the "Agree" button (CSS Profile) or the acceptance box (IDOC), and You will not be able to proceed to use the websites for the service(s). You understand that College Board is not granting to You any license or sublicense to IDOC or CSS Profile, and that You are granted only limited rights of online access to use the features and functionality of these services.
You understand that your application or information provided to an Institution via IDOC or CSS Profile does not provide or automatically generate a final determination, or actual grant, of financial assistance or scholarship award. College Board is not involved in any selection or decision making and has no responsibility or liability in connection with any financial assistance or award that You may or may not receive.
College Board will only share the information You provide in CSS Profile with the Institution(s) that You select.  The Institutions You select will receive the information from your application they request. Not all Institutions request all information. If you use a CSS Profile Fee Waiver to submit your CSS Profile, College Board will advise the Institution receiving your information that You have used a CSS Profile Fee Waiver. If an Institution has provided You with a payment code to use for the CSS Profile fee, the Institution that gave You the payment code will know whether You used it to send your information to that Institution. College Board will make the documents you upload via IDOC available to Institutions. However, some Institutions may elect not to receive certain documents via IDOC. If You have uploaded a document that the Institution has selected not to receive, that Institution will not receive the document via IDOC.
College Board will have no responsibility or liability in connection with any loss or damage which may be incurred by You, your parents or legal guardians as a result of:
1. Invalid or insufficient data that You, your parents or legal guardians enter or upload; or
2. Any course of action taken by You, your parents or legal guardians in reliance on your estimated financial assistance; or
3. Any deadlines set by an Institution which You, your parents or legal guardians miss; or
4. Any communications from an Institution or generated by IDOC or CSS Profile that You, your parents or legal guardians delete, do not respond to or otherwise fail to adhere to the instructions provided; or
5. Your use of the IDOC or CSS Profile services other than in accordance with the Permitted Use.
College Board retains the right to deny access to anyone who we believe has violated these Terms of Service.
You shall not use the IDOC or CSS Profile services, allow others to use the services, or knowingly condone use of the services by others, in any manner that attempts to, or is likely to gain unauthorized access to the services, other users' accounts, names, passwords, and user information.
When You begin your CSS Profile application, You will be asked to include your nickname. Your nickname will then be used throughout the application, will be seen by anyone who logs into your CSS Profile application, such as your parent(s) or legal guardian(s), will be shared with any Institutions that receive your profile application, and will be used in future CSS Profile and IDOC communications. Do not share your nickname with us if You do not want this information to be shared with Institutions or be visible in the CSS Profile application. File names of documents that you upload to IDOC will be visible to anyone who has access to your IDOC documents. Keep this in mind when uploading documents.
You will access IDOC and/or CSS Profile through a College Board website. You understand that there is a risk of interruption to websites. You understand that College Board accepts no responsibility for security of information transmitted over the Internet. College Board engages third parties as necessary for providing the CSS Profile and IDOC services. You understand that all title and proprietary rights in and to IDOC and CSS Profile are owned by College Board, including copyright, trade secrets and trademarks. Other than solely in connection with the Permitted Use, You are prohibited from copying, disseminating, publishing, displaying or distributing in any form, or reproducing the content in whole or in part. You also agree that You will not, and will not encourage anyone else to: copy, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, attempt to derive the source code, data layouts, algorithms and/or formulas of, decrypt, modify, or create derivative works of the IDOC or CSS Profile systems, system updates or any part.
College Board may use data and information you provide in CSS Profile or IDOC to maintain, develop, support, improve, and diagnose CSS Profile and IDOC, and related products. College Board may also use the information You provide in CSS Profile to make CSS Profile Fee Waiver determinations.
GENERAL DISCLAIMER. COLLEGE BOARD AND ITS AFFILIATES MAKE NO WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING COLLEGE BOARD SERVICES INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THAT USING CSS PROFILE OR IDOC WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE OR PROVIDE YOUR DESIRED RESULT. YOU ACCEPT COLLEGE BOARD SERVICES AS IS.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT FINALLY DETERMINED TO BE PROHIBITED BY LAW, COLLEGE BOARD’S TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU, YOUR PARENTS OR LEGAL GUARDIANS OR ANYONE CLAIMING BY OR THROUGH YOU OR ON YOUR BEHALF, FOR ANY CLAIMS, LOSSES, COSTS, OR DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR RESULTING FROM OR IN ANY WAY RELATED TO COLLEGE BOARD OR COLLEGE BOARD SERVICES, FROM ANY CAUSE, SHALL NOT EXCEED $100.00. IN ADDITION, COLLEGE BOARD WILL NOT BE LIABLE IN ANY EVENT FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, EXEMPLARY, OR SPECIAL DAMAGES.
IDOC or CSS Profile services may be taken down periodically for scheduled maintenance and technical fixes.
You agree and understand that College Board's Terms of Service located at Legal Terms for Students - College Board Privacy Center also apply to your use of IDOC and CSS Profile.
You agree You will not use services designed by external parties to allow automated, manual or other means to obtain, harvest or aggregate any data, software, code or other content from CSS Profile and/or IDOC including, without limitation –
1. Manual or automated software, devices, scripts robots, other means or processes to access, "scrape", "crawl" or "spider" the Services or any related data or information
2. Bots or other automated methods to access the Services, add or download contacts, send or redirect messages
For Users outside the United States: IDOC and CSS Profile operate on a software as a service platform that is located in the United States. Therefore, your information will be transferred from your location to the United States, which may not provide the same level of protection for your personally identifiable information as your home country. When You furnish information to College Board's IDOC or CSS Profile services, You are consenting to a cross-border transfer of that information to the United States. The information may be available to the United States government or its agencies under a lawful order in the United States.  If you do not agree to this international transfer of data, you shouldn’t use the website and CSS Profile and IDOC services or otherwise send us your personally identifiable information.

ARBITRATION OF DISPUTES AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER. All disputes between you and College Board and any of its contractors (each a “party”) that relate in any way to CSS Profile or IDOC will exclusively be resolved in binding arbitration or small claims court. By agreeing to arbitration in accordance with this section, you are waiving your right to have your dispute heard by a judge or jury except as set forth below.

Either party can seek to have a claim resolved in small claims court if the rules of that court will allow it. Additionally, if the claims asserted in any request or demand for arbitration could have been brought in small claims court, then either you or College Board may elect to have the claims heard in small claims court, rather than in arbitration, at any time before an arbitrator is appointed, by notifying the other party of that election in writing. Any dispute about whether a claim qualifies for small claims court will be resolved by that court and not by an arbitrator. In the event that either party elects to have their claims heard in small claims court, the arbitration proceeding will remain closed unless and until there is a decision by the small claims court that the claim should proceed in arbitration.

All claims that are not decided in small claims court must be resolved through binding, individual arbitration before a single arbitrator. The arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) under the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules, supplemented by the AAA Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules as applicable, in effect at the time a request for arbitration is filed with the AAA. Copies of the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules and the AAA Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules are located at adr.org. The arbitrator will have the authority to resolve any dispute regarding the scope or enforceability of these Rules, except only a court can decide claims that a party violated the intellectual property rights of the other party. In addition, only a court can decide issues relating to (a) the pre-arbitration requirements contained in these Rules or (b) the interpretation of the prohibition of class and representative actions contained in these Rules.

Before commencing a small claims court or arbitration proceeding, that party (the "complainant") must provide the other party (the "respondent") with a written notice of dispute that includes the complainant's name and contact information, a detailed description of the dispute, relevant documents, the specific relief sought, and the complainant's physical signature (signature by counsel to the party is not sufficient). If you are the complainant, send the notice of dispute by first class mail, FedEx, or UPS. Prior to September 2025, please address to Legal Department, 250 Vesey Street, New York, NY 10281. After September 2025, please address to Legal Department, 225 Liberty Street, New York, NY, 10281. Alternatively, you (or your counsel) can send the notice of dispute to legalhelp@collegeboard.org. A member of College Board’s Legal Department will then contact you (or your counsel) to attempt to resolve the dispute through informal good faith negotiations as described below. College Board will send its notice of dispute to your address as reflected in College Board's records.

Also, before the complainant may commence a small claims court or arbitration proceeding, the parties must attempt to resolve the dispute through informal, good-faith negotiation. If the parties have not resolved the dispute within sixty (60) days of the respondent’s receipt of the written notice of dispute, the parties will mutually schedule a settlement conference which must occur within fourteen (14) days of the completion of the sixty (60) day period, unless otherwise mutually agreed by the parties. Each party must personally appear at the settlement conference (if a party is represented by counsel, their counsel may also participate), and appearances may be made telephonically or by video. If the parties are unable to resolve the dispute at the settlement conference, either party may commence arbitration or file a small claims court proceeding. The statute of limitations and any filing fee deadlines will be tolled while the parties engage in this informal dispute resolution process. If any aspect of the requirements in this section has not been met, a court can enjoin the filing or prosecution of an arbitration or the assessment of any arbitration fees. In addition, unless prohibited by law, the AAA cannot accept or administer an arbitration, nor assess any fees for an arbitration, that has not met the requirements of this section. If the arbitration is already pending, it must be dismissed.

If the dispute proceeds to arbitration, the complainant must personally attend all arbitration conferences, hearings, and mediations scheduled by the AAA or by an arbitrator or mediator appointed by the AAA. If the complainant is represented by counsel, the complainant’s counsel may also participate, and all participation may be made telephonically or by video except as directed by the arbitrator or mediator. If a complainant fails to personally appear at any conference, hearing, or mediation scheduled by the AAA or by an AAA arbitrator or mediator, regardless of whether the complainant’s counsel attends, the arbitrator will administratively close the arbitration proceeding without prejudice, unless the complainant shows good cause as to why the complainant was not able to attend the conference, hearing, or mediation.

This arbitration will be conducted as a documents-only arbitration (i.e., there will be no in-person or telephonic hearing) unless otherwise agreed by the parties or required by the arbitrator. If the parties agree to or the arbitrator requires proceedings, such proceedings should be conducted at a location that is reasonably convenient to both parties with due consideration of their ability to travel and other pertinent circumstances. If the parties are unable to agree on a location, the parties agree that the proceedings will be conducted via a video or telephonic call or, in the event that face-to-face proceedings are agreed to by the parties or required by the arbitrator, at a location that is reasonably convenient to both parties in accordance with the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules. The arbitrator may consider rulings in arbitrations involving other individuals, but an arbitrator's rulings will not be binding in proceedings involving different individuals. The existence and content of the arbitration proceedings, including documents and briefs submitted by the parties; any correspondence from the AAA; and correspondence, orders, and awards issued by the arbitrator, will remain strictly confidential and will not be disclosed to any third party without the express written consent from the other party, unless disclosure to the third party is reasonably required in the context of conducting the arbitration proceedings or related court proceedings.

For disputes meeting the definition of “Mass Arbitration” under the AAA Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules, the parties agree that the dispute is subject to the AAA’s Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules and the parties agree to the appointment of a Process Arbitrator, except as may otherwise be decided by the arbitrator or the AAA.

The parties agree that the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) 9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq. governs this section, and it is the intent of the parties that the FAA will preempt all State laws to the fullest extent permitted by law.

No arbitration may be maintained as a class or collective action; a party may bring a claim only on their own behalf and cannot seek a relief that would affect other individuals. Unless all parties agree otherwise, the arbitrator will not have the authority to consolidate the claims of more than 1 individual, conduct any class or collective proceeding, make any class or collective award, or make an award to any person or entity not a party to the arbitration, without the express written consent of College Board.

Payment of all filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees and costs will be governed by the AAA's rules. If the arbitrator finds that either the substance of your claim or the relief sought was frivolous or was brought for an improper purpose (as measured by the standards set forth in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(b)), then College Board may seek applicable fee-shifting.

College Board reserves the right to monitor and/or restrict such services if we believe that they have been used to access our site. You further acknowledge and agree that College Board shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with your use of or reliance on any such services available on or through any such site or resource.