These are the official posting guidelines (“Site Guidelines”) for www.ratemycollege.org  website, application or other interactive service (“Site”). The Site is owned, operated and/or provided by Cohen & Associates, f/k/a RMC, Inc. (“RMC,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) and these Site Guidelines are a part of, and an Additional Terms under, our Terms of Use Agreement.

Rate My College is an online destination for students to rate colleges and OCR branches across the United States in regard to how the institution handled incidents of GBV and discrimination reported by students. Our mission is to provide a “Safe Space” to share experiences to empower victims of GBV to share their stories, spread awareness as well as provide a community of empathy, unity and support.

THE SITE/APP

The Rate My College website (www.ratemycollege.org) and mobile app provide user generated reviews on how colleges and OCR branches handle incidents of GBV and discrimination reported by students. Ratings should only be posted by students who have attended or are currently attending the specific college or university being rated, or who have filed a complaint with an OCR branch.

Rate My College is NOT the place to report dangerous, illegal or illicit behaviors. If you believe that you, or another student is in danger, we strongly advise you to report such incidences directly to your campus authorities or local law enforcement. (For more information and resources, please read here).

HOW WE WORK

Rate My College has a team of moderators who read every rating submitted. We have defined site guidelines to help reinforce our mission and most importantly to ensure our decisions around moderation are 100% consistent. Our moderators are experts on our guidelines and will remove any comment that doesn’t comply. No hate speech, profanity, name-calling, vulgarity, and/or derogatory comments are allowed.

Did we miss something? If you feel an inappropriate comment should be removed from the site, we want to know. You can flag a comment for re-review and it will be escalated to our moderators. Moderators will determine whether to remove the rating permanently or restore it to the website. Our moderators will never edit a rating to make it comply or remove a rating simply because it is a low score or negative review.

GUIDELINES:

• Be honest in your reviews. You want to be able to trust these reviews when evaluating how the college or OCR branch handled incidents of reported GBV and discrimination so we ask that to contribute in the same spirit.
• When you are reviewing a college and/or OCR branch, it’s often helpful to provide both pros and cons. This leads to much more credible and constructive feedback for your peers.
• Reviews should focus specifically on your experience.
• Avoid hearsay. We want you to share your individual experience. Don’t speak on behalf of another, encourage others to submit their own reviews.
• This is not a forum for debate. Reviews that specifically reference another review will be removed. If you do not agree with someone’s individual experience, we encourage you to share your own.
• Reviews fueled by anger do not reflect well on the author and can be removed for violations such as profanity. Take a minute to step back and make sure your review will genuinely help others understand your experience.
• Rate My College reserves the right to remove ratings that do not contain substantive comments.
• We only allow one student to review a college or OCR branch one time per incident. Spamming or dogpiling an account will lead to comment removal and the account being temporarily locked on the site.
• When reading your fellow students reviews, we encourage you to use your discretion and weigh every review amongst the others. Online reviews should be one of the many resources used when making a decision that affects your academic future.
• This is an anonymous website where students can share their experiences. We are unable to provide any data or personal information about the submitter of a review.
• We are unable to remove a comment simply because it is negative. It will only be removed if it doesn’t comply with our site guidelines.
• Rate My College’s moderation team is unable to prove or disprove details mentioned in a review. We are not arbiters of facts. Please note that posted reviews are allegations and we do not conduct investigations.

Prohibited Content: Comments that contain the following will be removed:

• Profanity, name-calling, and/or vulgarity, derogatory remarks about religion, ethnicity or race, gender, physical appearance, age, mental and/or physical disabilities;
• Identifiable information about an individual that would allow someone to contact the individual outside of their school;
• References to an individual’s family, personal life and/or sex life, including sexual innuendos;
• Hyperlinks and / or URLs.

FLAGGING A RATING

If you see a rating that you believe violates these Site Guidelines, please click the “report this rating” at the bottom of the comment and state the problem. Such comments will be evaluated by the Site’s personnel. Please do not flag a rating just because you disagree with it.

SOME LEGAL STUFF

Rate My College occasionally receives removal demands that include threats to sue Rate My College. To date, no one has followed through with a lawsuit against us for our reviews.

The law protects Rate My College from legal responsibility for the content submitted by our users, like the reviews that appear on our site. Specifically, the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (47 U.S.C. Sec. 230) created a federal immunity to any cause of action that would make service providers, like Rate My College, liable for information originating with a third-party user of the service.

The law is clear on this. Anyone who wishes to sue Rate My College for the reviews posted by our members risks penalties imposed by the court. These may include financial sanctions and reimbursement of our attorney’s fees for our having to defend against a lawsuit that ignores obvious legal protections for Rate My College.

If, despite our caution, you feel that legal action is the only recourse for you, our address for service of legal process is:

Cohen & Associates
1209 N Orange St
Wilmington, DE 19801

If you intend to serve documents on RMC, Inc., please make sure that service is properly effected in the US in accordance with all applicable law. We are not obligated to respond if service is not valid.

These guidelines are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. While we stand by our guidelines, you are encouraged to seek advice from an attorney who is competent in the relevant field of law.

RESERVATION OF RIGHTS

The Site reserves the right to remove any comments deemed as inappropriate, libelous, defamatory, indecent, vulgar or obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit or sexually suggestive, racially, culturally, or ethnically offensive, harmful, harassing, intimidating, threatening, hateful, objectionable, discriminatory, or abusive, or which may or may not appear to impersonate anyone else or that otherwise violate the Terms of Use Agreement.

The Site reserves the right to remove, provide to authorities or otherwise take appropriate action regarding comments that threaten violence or bodily harm to another user including, but not limited to, notifying the authorities of your IP address, where available, and the time you rated and taking any action as described in the Terms of Use Agreement and Privacy Policy.