Terms and Conditions
Last updated June 17, 2025.
These Terms and Conditions apply to your access to and use of the U.S. News Services (as defined below) which are published by U.S. News & World Report, L.P.(“U.S. News”) and certain of its Affiliates. As used in these Terms and Conditions,“Affiliates” of U.S. News are any entities that control, are controlled by or under common control with U.S. News. You can find the current list of Affiliates to which these Terms and Conditions applyhere. U.S. News and its Affiliates to which these Terms and Conditions apply are sometimes referred to herein as the“U.S. News Group”,"we","us", or"our".
These Terms and Conditions apply to the websites listedhere, the paid content, the insurance brokerage, lead generation and quotes, and any other websites, emails, digital services or mobile or other applications of the U.S. News Group on which a link to these Terms and Conditions appears (collectively, the "U.S. News Services"). The U.S. News Services are provided by the U.S. News Group in our sole discretion. The U.S. News Group may change, suspend or discontinue any or all of the U.S. News Services at any time. The U.S. News Group does not control, and is not responsible for, and these Terms and Conditions do not apply to, any third-party site to which the U.S. News Services link or that links to any U.S. News Services.
You agree that your use or access of the U.S. News Services is subject to these Terms and Conditions. These Terms and Conditions are a legal contract between you and the U.S. News Group, so you should review them carefully before using or accessing the U.S. News Services.If you do not agree with the Terms and Conditions in their entirety, please do not use or access any U.S. News Services. These Terms and Conditions may be modified from time to time; the date of the most recent changes or revisions will appear on this page. Any changes to these Terms and Conditions will become effective immediately upon posting. It is your responsibility to review these Terms and Conditions prior to each use or access of any U.S. News Services. We will provide required notice when we make material changes to these Terms and Conditions.
Portions of the U.S. News Services may be governed by different or additional terms and conditions. In the event of a conflict between any provision of these Terms and Conditions, on the one hand, and any specific terms and conditions for a particular U.S. News Service, on the other hand, the applicable provision of the specific terms and conditions for that U.S. News Service shall prevail with respect to your use or access of the U.S. News Services.
NOTICE REGARDING DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND LIMITATIONS ON TIME TO BRING CLAIMS: THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CONTAIN A CLASS ACTION WAIVER THAT APPLY TO ALL CLAIMS BROUGHT AGAINST THE U.S. NEWS GROUP AND AFFECT YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS, AND LIMITS THE TIME PERIOD WITHIN WHICH YOU MAY BRING A CLAIM AGAINST US. PLEASE READ THECLASS ACTION WAIVER ANDCLAIMS DEADLINE SECTIONS BELOW CAREFULLY.
Noncommercial Use Only; Website Availability
The materials and tools contained on the U.S. News Services are provided by the U.S. News Group as a service to you for your noncommercial, personal use or access on an "as is, as available" basis and may be used or accessed by you for informational purposes only. You acknowledge that you are using or accessing the U.S. News Services at your own risk. The U.S. News Group assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in these materials and makes no commitment to update the information contained herein. The U.S. News Group makes no, and expressly disclaims any and all, representations or warranties, express or implied, regarding the U.S. News Services, including without limitation the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of text, graphics, links, products and services, and other items accessed from or via the U.S. News Services, or that use or access of the U.S. News Services will be uninterrupted, error- free, or free of viruses or other harmful components. No advice or information given by the U.S. News Group or any other party on the U.S. News Services shall create any warranty or liability. The content provided through the U.S. News Services should be used for informational purposes only; the content is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice. Always seek the advice of a relevant professional with any questions about any health, financial or other decision you are seeking to make. In the case of our product reviews, consumers should always consult the manufacturer and/or their dealer/distributor for the most up-to-date product information, features and specifications.
THE U.S. NEWS GROUP DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OR ACCESS OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE OR ACCESS OF THE MATERIALS ON THE U.S. NEWS SERVICES IN TERMS OF THEIR CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, RELIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL THE U.S. NEWS GROUP OR ANY OF ITS PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, LICENSORS, OR THEIR RESPECTIVE CONSTITUENT ENTITIES, PARTNERS, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, OR REPRESENTATIVES BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, WHETHER DIRECT, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL, AND INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOST REVENUES OR LOST PROFITS, ARISING FROM OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE, RELIANCE ON, OR PERFORMANCE OF THE INFORMATION ON THE U.S. NEWS SERVICES. YOUR SOLE REMEDY IN THE EVENT OF ANY DEFICIENCY, DEFECT, FAILURE, ERROR OR INTERRUPTION IN THE U.S. NEWS SERVICES OR ANY GOODS OR SERVICES OFFERED FOR SALE THROUGH THE U.S. NEWS SERVICES SHALL BE TO REQUEST THAT THE U.S. NEWS GROUP CORRECT THE MATTER OR, IF THE U.S. NEWS GROUP FAILS TO DO SO, TO DISCONTINUE USE OR ACCESS OF THE U.S. NEWS SERVICES. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE U.S. NEWS GROUP’S LIABILITY EXCEED AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO ALL FEES PAID BY YOU TO THE U.S. NEWS GROUP IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OR ACCESS OF THE U.S. NEWS SERVICES DURING THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE OCCURRENCE OF THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO YOUR CLAIM.
The U.S. News Group periodically schedules system downtime for maintenance and other purposes. Unplanned outages also may occur. The U.S. News Group shall have no liability for the resulting unavailability of the U.S. News Services or for any loss of data or transactions caused by planned or unplanned system outages, or any outages of web host providers or the Internet infrastructure and network external to the U.S. News Services.
Prohibited Use of the U.S. News Services
You may not access or use, or attempt to use, the U.S. News Services to take any action that could harm the U.S. News Group or any other person or entity, or to violate any law, regulation, or any right of any other person or entity, including any intellectual property or other legal right. You agree that you will not attempt (or encourage or support anyone else’s attempt) to modify, reverse engineer, decompile, decrypt, create other works from, or disassemble the U.S. News Services, or make any unauthorized use of the U.S. News Services, including any materials and tools published on the U.S. News Services.
Without our prior written consent, you shall not:
- use any services, software, or any manual or automatic device, tool, or process to circumvent, overcome, or otherwise bypass any security, restriction, condition, or technological protection measures that control access to the U.S. News Services, or fail to abide by exclusionary protocols such as the Robots Exclusion Protocol or the Automated Content Access protocol;
- use any robots, spiders, crawlers, data mining or extraction technologies, or other automated scripts or means to collect, scrape, or otherwise access the U.S. News Services including the materials and tools published on the U.S. News Services;
- use the U.S. News Services or the materials and tools published on the U.S. News Services for the development of any software program, model, algorithm, or generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) tool, including, but not limited to, training or using the materials in connection with the development or operation of a machine learning or AI system (including any use of the U.S. News Services for training, fine tuning, or grounding the machine learning or AI system or as part of retrieval-augmented generation;
- access or use any portion of the U.S. News Services you do not have permission or authorization to access or for which we have revoked your access, including accessing any parts of the U.S. News Services other than through our currently available published interfaces provided by us pursuant to these Terms and Conditions;
- take action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our network or infrastructure, such as scripting the creation of User Content (as defined below), or overloading, flooding, crawling, or spamming the U.S. News Services, in a manner that interferes with, disrupts, or creates an undue burden on the U.S. News Services, network, or infrastructure;
- do anything that could disable, damage or change the functioning or appearance of the U.S. News Services, including the presentation of advertising, materials, and tools published on the U.S. News Services;
- falsify, spoof, forge, or otherwise provide false or misleading packet header information or source-identifying information, including information that does not match a company’s name, when accessing or using the U.S. News Services;
- perform text and data mining activities under Art. 4 of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market; and
- coordinate activity that encourages, promotes, enables, or facilitates actions that violate these Terms and Conditions.
You agree that if you engage in a prohibited use of the U.S. News Services, you will pay the U.S. News Group its actual damages, including, but not limited to, any financial or reputational harm incurred by the U.S. News Group plus the fair market value of any U.S. News Group products or services implicated by your prohibited use. This promise to pay is in addition to any other liability that you may have to the U.S. News Group.
Intellectual Property
All materials published on or in the U.S. News Services are protected by copyrights, trademarks, patents, database rights, sui generis rights or other intellectual or proprietary rights. Materials published on or in the U.S. News Services may not be reproduced, republished, distributed, transmitted, resold, displayed, broadcast, cached, archived or otherwise exploited in any manner without the express written permission of either the relevant member of the U.S. News Group or, in the case of content licensed by such member of the U.S. News Group from third parties, the entity that is credited as the copyright holder of such licensed content. You may download freely accessible material (one copy per page) from the U.S. News Services for your personal and noncommercial use only, without altering or removing any trademark, copyright, or other notice from such material; you must pay a fee to access that content which requires a fee for access. Personal and non-commercial use does not include the use of material published on or in the U.S. News Services in connection with: (1) the development of any software program, model, algorithm, or other generative AI tool (including any use of material on the U.S. News Services for purposes of retrieval augmented generation, grounding or training); or (2) providing archived or cached data sets containing material on the U.S. News Services to another person or entity. To request use of U.S. News Services content – other than personal, non-commercial use as described above – contactpermissions@usnews.com to request specific, written authorization, which may require payment of a fee and may be granted or denied in the sole discretion of the U.S. News Group.
In the event you believe that any content posted on the U.S. News Services infringes your copyright or other intellectual-property rights, you may notify the U.S. News Group by providing the information required by the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Action of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 512, to the U.S. News Group's Copyright Agent:
Attention: Copyright Agent
U.S. News & World Report L.P.
129 West 29th Street, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10001
(t) 212.210.6390
copyrightagent@usnews.com
User Generated Content
The U.S. News Group may provide users an opportunity to transmit or post content, which may include text, videos, photographs, images, sound files and/or other content, to the U.S. News Services (collectively,"User Content") and may provide for the hosting, sharing and/or publishing of such User Content. The U.S. News Group does not necessarily endorse, support, sanction, encourage, or agree with User Content and expressly disclaims any and all liability in connection with any User Content.
You shall not transmit or post any User Content that: (a) is unlawful, threatening, harassing, abusive, false, inaccurate, deceptive, misleading, offensive, distasteful, inappropriate, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent, invasive of another’s privacy or harmful to minors in any way; (b) constitutes or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any local, state, national, or international law; (c) is copyrighted, protected by trade secret, patent, trademark or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from their rightful owner to submit or post the material and to grant the U.S. News Group all of the license rights granted herein; (d) refers derisively to the goods or services of others; (e) includes any disruptive elements that may damage or interfere with the U.S. News Services such as malware, spyware or other malicious code; (f) includes advertisements or solicitations of business; (g) impersonates another person; (h) includes any person’s full name or personal or identifying information without that person’s authorization; (i) violates the law or otherwise violates these Terms and Conditions; or (j) provides a link to any of the above.
In connection with any User Content that you submit, you affirm, represent, and/or warrant that: (i) you own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to use, and to authorize the U.S. News Group to use, all patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights in and to any and all User Content to enable inclusion and use of the User Content in the manner contemplated by the U.S. News Services and these Terms and Conditions; (ii) you have the written consent, release, and/or permission of each and every identifiable individual person in the User Content to use the name or likeness of each and every such identifiable individual person to enable inclusion and use of the User Content in the manner contemplated by the U.S. News Services and these Terms and Conditions; and (iii) it complies with these Terms and Conditions.
You understand that all User Content is the sole responsibility of the person who transmits or posts that User Content. This means that you, and not the U.S. News Group, are entirely and solely responsible for all User Content that you transmit or post and for the consequences of the U.S. News Group publishing such User Content. The U.S. News Group does not and cannot review the User Content transmitted or posted by users and is not responsible for such content. However, the U.S. News Group shall have the right, but not the obligation, to refuse, delete, move, remove, or edit any User Content that violates these Terms and Conditions, theU.S. News Acceptable Use Policy or is otherwise objectionable, as determined by the U.S. News Group in its sole discretion and without notice. Any specific complaints regarding User Content must be directed to legal@usnews.com, and any promise by the U.S. News Group to investigate, delete, remove, or otherwise edit any User Content shall be non-binding unless expressly provided in writing by the General Counsel of U.S. News.
You agree to indemnify the U.S. News Group and its parents, subsidiaries, and affiliates, and each of their respective constituent entities, partners, officers, directors, employees, agents and representatives, against, and to hold each of them harmless from, any and all claims and liabilities (including attorney’s fees) that may arise from your use or access of the U.S. News Services, your transmission or posting of User Content, your unauthorized use or access of material obtained from the U.S. News Services, your breach of these Terms and Conditions or theU.S. News Acceptable Use Policy, your violation of any law, regulation or any right of any other person or entity, and any unauthorized use of your account or password. The U.S. News Group reserves the right to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter which is subject to indemnification under this section. In such case, you agree to cooperate with any reasonable requests assisting our defense of such matter.
The U.S. News Group does not claim any ownership rights in the User Content. By transmitting or posting User Content, you grant to the U.S. News Group the perpetual, non-terminable, worldwide, nonexclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable right and license to use, reproduce, edit, remove, modify (including the size and aspect ratio of photographs), publish, transmit, display, distribute, have distributed, promote, perform, translate, and prepare derivative works of, all or any portion of such User Content in any form, in any medium now existing or hereinafter invented for any purpose, including commercial uses, including without limitation, in connection with:
- the U.S. News Services,
- other publications of the U.S. News Group,
- the U.S. News Group’s (and our successors’) business,
- promoting and redistributing part or all of the U.S. News Services (and derivative works thereof) without additional notice, approval, consent, compensation or attribution, or
- stories featuring the U.S. News Services or any content on the U.S. News Services in other news and media websites or other outlets.
You waive any moral rights you may have in the User Content. You also grant each user of the U.S. News Services a non-exclusive license to access your User Content through the U.S. News Services, and to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such User Content as permitted through the functionality of the U.S. News Services and under these Terms and Conditions.
Beta Testing
From time to time, users of certain portions of the U.S. News Services may be given the opportunity to volunteer to become part of a group of"Beta Testers." Beta Testers will review, test and provide written and/or verbal Feedback on new ideas and features for U.S. News Services. If you volunteer to be a Beta Tester, you agree (i) that all concepts, design mockups, content or other information shared with you as a Beta Tester is confidential information of the U.S. News Group and that you will keep it confidential, use it only in connection with your role as a Beta Tester, and not disclose it to any other person, and (ii) that the U.S. News Group will be the sole owner of all right, title and interest in and to any Feedback you provide to the U.S. News Group in connection with your role as a Beta Tester. For purposes hereof,"Feedback" means any comments, suggestions, expectations, test results, error data, bug reports or other information or materials that you provide to the U.S. News Group in connection with your role as a Beta Tester.
Text Messages
Subject to applicable laws, the U.S. News Group may send text messages. Our text message program is governed by theU.S. News SMS Terms of Service, which are incorporated into these Terms and Conditions by reference.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions to U.S. News College Compass and U.S. News Graduate School Compass (collectively,"Compass") are available at usnews.com. Such subscriptions may include access to the electronic edition of a U.S. News guidebook. If you purchase a one-year subscription to Compass through usnews.com, you may request a refund within 24 hours of purchase. Please send an email tousnewscollegecompass@usnews.com. Refund requests will not be honored unless submitted within 24 hours of purchase.
Insurance Services
Third Party Insurance Services
We provide links and collect information related to insurance services to facilitate your submission of an application to an unaffiliated insurance broker or agent, to enable you to obtain a quote through use of theusnews.com website (the“Insurance Services”). Submission of information to obtain a quote through the usnews.com website establishes a relationship between you and the insurance broker or agent and any carrier issuing a policy or quote to you. Any questions on the terms of the policy or quote or related to insurance coverage options will be provided by the unaffiliated insurance broker or agent, and not the U.S. News Group. Your insurance policy and quote are governed by the terms set forth in the broker or agent’s terms of service or your insurance policy (“Insurance Agreements”). The U.S. News Group is not a party to such Insurance Agreements and will not be liable to you for any damages related to, or arising out of, such Insurance Agreements, the Insurance Services or your submission of a quote through the usnews.com website. These Terms and Conditions will not change or alter any Insurance Agreements between you and the unaffiliated insurance broker, agent or carrier.
All quotes generated by the unaffiliated insurance broker, agent or carrier are estimates based upon the information you provided and are not a contract, binder or agreement to extend insurance coverage. Any coverage descriptions provided on the usnews.com website are general descriptions of available coverages made by the unaffiliated insurance broker, agent or carrier and are not a statement of contract. To obtain coverage, you must submit an application which will be provided to the unaffiliated broker, agent or carrier, and all applications are subject to such party’s approval.
USN Insurance Agency Services
USN Insurance Agency, LLC (“USN Insurance Agency”) offers Insurance Services as a producer through the USN Insurance Agency website atusninsurance.com. Any Insurance Services offered by USN Insurance Agency will be governed by the terms and conditions attached to those Insurance Services, including any payment and liability provisions, and the U.S. News Group and USN Insurance Agency will not be liable for any Insurance Services offered through the USN Insurance Agency website unless such liability is expressly noted in these Terms and Conditions or your Insurance Agreement with USN Insurance Agency.
As part of the Insurance Services offered by USN Insurance Agency, it may offer you quotes for insurance. All quotes generated by USN Insurance Agency are estimates based upon the information you provided and are not a contract, binder or agreement to extend insurance coverage. Any coverage descriptions provided on the USN Insurance Agency website are general descriptions of available coverages and are not a statement of contract. To obtain coverage, you must submit an application to USN Insurance Agency, and all applications are subject to the underwriter’s approval.
USN Insurance Agency reserves the right, but is not obligated, to limit the sales of Insurance Services to any person, geographic region or jurisdiction. USN Insurance Agency may exercise this right on a case-by-case basis. USN Insurance Agency reserves the right to limit the quantities of any products or services that it offers. All descriptions of products, services and pricing are subject to change at any time without notice, at USN Insurance Agency’s sole discretion. USN Insurance Agency reserves the right to discontinue any product or service at any time. Any offer for any product or service made on the USN Insurance Agency website is void where prohibited.
Third Party Provider Content Notices
By accessing the U.S. News Services, you specifically acknowledge and agree that: (a) Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium; (b) no Associated Press materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use; (c) the Associated Press will not be liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any Associated Press materials or in the transmission or delivery of any part thereof or for any damages arising therefrom or occasioned thereby; (d) the Associated Press is an intended third party beneficiary of these terms and conditions, and it may exercise all rights and remedies available to it; and (e) the Associated Press reserves the right to audit your use of Associated Press materials or any portion thereof at any time.
Paid Content and Content Available Only to Registered Users
Purchasers of paid content or content that is available only to registered users of the applicable U.S. News Service are not permitted to share, distribute, sell, or otherwise transfer their password to other individuals. The password is for the purchaser's or registrant’s sole use. Significant or unusual use of a single password (including but not limited to significant use of a single password on multiple computers or devices) could result in suspension of that password. Paid content and content available only to registered users is protected by copyright laws, and may not be transmitted (whether by e-mail or otherwise), reproduced, republished, distributed, resold, displayed, broadcast, or otherwise exploited in any manner without the express written permission of the U.S. News Group. Paid content or content available only to registered users cannot be used in connection with: (1) the development of any software program, model, algorithm, or other generative AI tool (including any use of paid content or content available only to registered users for purposes of retrieval augmented generation, grounding or training); or (2) providing archived or cached data sets containing paid content or content available only to registered users to another person or entity.
Featured Services
Some of the features included in the U.S. News Services are provided by third parties. The companies that the U.S. News Group selects as service providers offer products and services that site visitors may find useful. The U.S. News Group in certain cases may have a business relationship with the third parties that it selects as service providers. The U.S. News Group is not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any advice or information given, or of any statement made, by the companies providing featured services, or for the content, services, products, or advertising on or available from their websites, or for the availability and operations of their websites.
Governing Law, Jurisdiction and Venue
You agree that any claim, action, or proceeding arising out of these Terms and Conditions, or your use or access of the U.S. News Services, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York applicable to contracts to be wholly performed therein, and any action based on or alleging a breach of these Terms and Conditions must be brought exclusively in a state or federal court of competent jurisdiction sitting in New York County, New York. You and the U.S. News Group each consent to venue in and personal jurisdiction of such courts.
Claims Deadline
You agree to present any claims against the U.S. News Group with respect to these Terms and Conditions and/or your use or access of the U.S. News Services within one year of the incident from which the claim arose, and you acknowledge that this expressly limits the applicable statute of limitations to one year.
Class Action Waiver
You agree that by using or accessing the U.S. News Services, each of you and the U.S. News Group are waiving the right and ability to participate as a plaintiff or class member in any class action in any dispute arising from your use or access of the U.S. News Services.If you do not agree with this Class Action Waiver in its entirety, you are expressly forbidden from using or accessing the U.S. News Services.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, YOU AGREE THAT YOU WILL NOT ACT IN ANY REPRESENTATIVE CAPACITY OR PARTICIPATE AS A MEMBER OF A CLASS OF CLAIMANTS IN ANY LAWSUIT AGAINST THE U.S. NEWS GROUP IN ANY COURT WITH RESPECT TO ANY CLAIMS OR DISPUTES. YOU AND THE U.S. NEWS GROUP MAY BRING LEGAL CLAIMS AGAINST EACH OTHER ONLY IN YOUR INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY (NON-CLASS, NON-COLLECTIVE, NON- REPRESENTATIVE, AND NON-AGGREGATE BASIS). THERE SHALL BE NO RIGHT OR AUTHORITY FOR ANY DISPUTES TO BE ARBITRATED ON A CLASS, COLLECTIVE, REPRESENTATIVE, OR AGGREGATE BASIS. Notwithstanding any other clause contained in these Terms and Conditions, this paragraph shall not be severable in any case in which the dispute is brought as a class, collective, representative or aggregate action.
This Class Action Waiver will survive the termination of the relationship between you and the U.S. News Group for any and all claims or disputes you or the U.S. News Group have relating in any way to the services provided by the U.S. News Group or your relationship with the U.S. News Group.
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