Anyone with WWW access can read discussions on this board. To read discussions, navigate to the discussion of interest by single clicking on the links from the list of topics and subtopics. You can navigate backwards using the navigation bars at the top of each page.

Contributing to Discussions

To post a message to an existing discussion at College Confidential, fill in the "Add a Message" box at the bottom of the page. You may use formatting codes or basic HTML tags to improve the appearance of your post. At the discretion of the moderators, the discussion may allow public posting or may require a user account (username and password). Follow the instructions on the form to supply the necessary credentials for posting.

Where available, you may click on a "Create New Conversation" button to start a new discussion. This will add a subtopic with the subject you specify and start a conversation with the initial message that you specify. After filling in the subject line, post a message as described above.

Searching the Board

This discussion board can be searched by time of post (New Messages search) or by matching text (Keyword Search). Each of these searching mechanisms provide convenient methods to locate discussions of interest.

To search for new messages, click the New Messages link from the Main Menu. If you have an account with a valid username and password, fill in your username and password in the appropriate boxes to search for messages since your last check. If you do not have an account, you can still search for new messages posted since a given date. The Last Day and Last Week options on the Main Menu are equivalent to searching for messages posted within the last day and messages posted within the last seven days, respectively.

To search the board by keywords, click the Keyword Search link from the Main Menu. You can then specify the words that will be used in the search. Additional instructions for using the Keyword Search option are displayed on the search screen itself.

When you have performed the search, click on any of the links to the pages to view the page, or click on a link in the result to go to the post where that text occurs.

Setting up a Profile - Required to Post !

Having a user account on the College Confidential discussion board gives the following benefits:

• Ability to specify your full name and e-mail address to be included on your post
• Ability to enable e-mail notification of all posts to topics you select (Find out immediately when someone answers your post!)
• Ability to change your own password
• The ability to specify miscellaneous preferences for operation of the board, and to give more information about yourself that others can view - you can even post your picture!
• Don't worry - College Confidential won't spam you! Check our privacy policy!

To get a College Confidential Discussion user account, first click the Edit Profile link from the Main Menu of this board. If you have a problem, e-mail one of the moderators listed on the Contact page and request a user account. Be sure to include your e-mail address, full name, and desired username if you e-mail a moderator.

Where to get further information

For additional information on using this system, read the Formatting document and the Troubleshooting document, available from the Main Menu. If you have additional questions or concerns, post them to an appropriate area on the discussion forum, or contact one of the moderators or the board administrator from the Contact page.

College Confidential Terms of Service (TOS)

Age. You certify that you are 13 years of age or over. All those individuals under 13 years of age will need a full release form from their parents before posting any messages. This is in compliance with the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act of 2000 (COPPA).

Courtesy. At College Confidential, we expect discussion to be courteous even when disagreement may be vigorous. When writing your messages, please use the same courtesy that you would show when speaking face-to-face with someone. Flames, insults, and personal attacks will not be tolerated. It's fine to disagree strongly with opinions, ideas, and facts, but always with respect for the other person. Great minds do not always think alike, and that's where the fun is! Also, note that messages express the thoughts of the writers, not the board or its moderators. Visitors who post discourteous messages will be warned; repeat offenders will be banned.

Commercial Posts, Repetitive Posts, Spam. Posts promoting web sites, products, or services are not allowed. Affiliate links are not allowed. URL signatures are not allowed. Please don't create extra work for our moderators by posting promotional notices on our boards. If you register as a user, you can put your URL in your profile where interested visitors can find it. We recognize that occasionally a post may contain a commercial URL which could be of value to our visitors. Our moderators will attempt to exercise judgment and delete promotial posts while leaving informative ones in place. They will err on the side of not allowing commercial links. Users who post commercial messages will be warned or banned. Repetitive posts, numerous posts that do not comply with our TOS, and other egregious incidents of spam will be reported to the abuse department of the poster's Internet Service Provider and/or national spam tracking organizations.

Links to other Forums. Please do not post links to other discussion forums. In order to fulfill our mission of being the best college discussion forum, we want important topics to be discussed here at College Confidential. Linking to discussions elsewhere defeats this purpose. Such links will be removed.

Rules & Disclaimers. It is a condition of your use of CollegeConfidential.com Message Boards or Chat Rooms that you do not: (i) post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, racial, obscene, vulgar, pornographic,
profane or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law; (ii) post or transmit comments containing harassing or offensive language, using sexual references, sexual nicknames, racial slurs or rude or deliberately offensive comments or engage in disruptive activity online, including excessive use of scripts, sound waves, scrolling (repeating the same message over and over), or use viruses, worms or Trojan horses; (iii) post or transmit any information, software or other material which violates or infringes the rights of others, including material which is an invasion of privacy or publicity rights or which is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right, or derivative works without first obtaining permission from the owner; (iv) post or
transmit any information, software or other material which contains a virus, worm, Trojan horse or other code that has contaminating or destructive properties; (v) post any information, software, or other material for commercial purposes; (vi) solicit other users to join or contribute money to any online service or other organization, advocate or attempt to get users to join in legal or illegal schemes; (vii) impersonate any person or entity or falsely represent your professional or other affiliation with any person or entity; or (viii) use CollegeConfidential.com to collect personally identifiable information in violation of our Privacy Policy. You agree College Confidential, at its sole and absolute discretion, shall determine whether any information transmitted or received violates this provision.

You agree to indemnify and hold CollegeConfidential.com and its employees, officers, directors and agents harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by a third party arising from any material
you contribute to Message Boards or Chat Rooms you access via CollegeConfidential.com.

You understand that CollegeConfidential.com has no obligation to monitor Message Boards or Chat Rooms. CollegeConfidential.com reserves the right at all times to disclose any information regarding the Message Boards or Chat Rooms, or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, that in College Confidential's sole and absolute discretion are objectionable. You acknowledge that CollegeConfidential.com reserves the right to monitor any and
all information transmitted or received through CollegeConfidential.com which may be examined, recorded, copied, and used in accordance with our Privacy Statement. Use of CollegeConfidential.com constitutes consent to such activity by CollegeConfidential.com, Inc..

Personal Information. When using CollegeConfidential.com, please be certain that anything you disclose does not compromise your personal safety. Do not provide your name, phone number, social security number or any other personally identifying information to people you do not know. Do not continue any conversation online that makes you feel uncomfortable. Please report any incidents of harassment or attempts to discover personal information to the moderators.

Moderation. CollegeConfidential.com moderators and administrators may edit, move, and delete posts to make them more accessible or to bring them into compliance with our TOS. If an edit changes the context or meaning of the post in any significant way, moderators will usually include a note that the post has been edited in the post itself. All moderation, however, is performed on a "best efforts" basis - each poster is fully responsible for his/her own posts, and each visitor is responsible for what he/she reads. Offensive posts should be reported to the moderators, and every effort will be made to remove them as soon as possible. Out of respect for both moderators and policies, discussion of moderator actions and forum policies is welcomed via e-mail; these issues are off-topic for the forums.

Language. All posts will be in English. Be descriptive, specific, and succinct in your postings. This way your opinion and point is clearly understood and referenced. Remember, people from all over the world read here with english as a second language. Please avoid excessive abbreviation and "text messaging" shorthand. Posts that do not meet our language guidelines will be deleted.

Copyright. All content on the CollegeConfidential.com web site is the property of CollegeConfidential.com, Inc., and CollegeConfidential.com reserves the right to publish and/or distribute such content, including discussion and chat posts by visitors to the web site, in printed and electronic form, including media that may become available at a future date.

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