A Respectful Community Starts With Honest Reviews
CampusGrader welcomes positive, negative, and mixed college experiences. Reviews must be firsthand, specific, respectful, and independently submitted so students and families can rely on the results they see.
Every review should be:
Reviews remain pending until CampusGrader makes a moderation decision.
Pending and rejected reviews never affect public CampusGrader results.
Reviewer email and internal moderation records are not publicly displayed.
Reviews should help—not mislead
The strongest CampusGrader reviews explain what a student experienced, why it mattered, and how it may help someone evaluating the same college. A review does not need to be positive. It needs to be truthful, relevant, and submitted in good faith.
Who may submit a college review
Reviews should come from people with meaningful, firsthand experience attending the institution.
Current students
Students presently enrolled who have attended classes or participated in campus life.
Graduates and alumni
Former students who completed a degree, certificate, or meaningful period of study.
Former and transfer students
Students who attended long enough to describe the institution from direct experience.
What makes a review useful
Readers need context and concrete details—not slogans, unsupported accusations, or one-word reactions.
Describe your own experience
Explain what happened to you rather than repeating rumors or stories from other people.
Include useful context
Your role, program, attendance period, or other relevant circumstances can help readers interpret your review.
Match ratings to your review
Category scores should reasonably reflect the positive and negative details in your written submission.
Write in your own words
Do not copy another review, reuse institutional marketing language, or submit content created for someone else.
Rate each area carefully
Public CampusGrader scores are organized around six exact categories. Rate only what you can assess from your experience.
Instruction, course access, academic advising, program quality, and learning resources.
Residence conditions, housing availability, meal options, quality, and reliability.
Campus safety, accessibility, counseling, student services, and institutional support.
Tuition, fees, financial burden, available aid, and the overall value of the experience.
Clubs, activities, student culture, social environment, belonging, and campus involvement.
Internships, career services, employer access, networking, and preparation for employment.
What CampusGrader does not allow
A submission may be rejected or removed when it violates these standards.
Reviews must remain independent
CampusGrader may reject submissions that appear purchased, pressured, coordinated, deceptive, or designed to manipulate a college’s public results.
No paid or rewarded reviews
Reviews must not be submitted in exchange for money, gifts, academic benefits, employment advantages, or other rewards.
No rating pressure
Colleges, organizations, employees, ambassadors, and student groups must not require or pressure someone to submit a particular score.
Disclose relevant relationships
Employment, family, financial, donor, leadership, athletic, or promotional relationships should be disclosed when they could affect the review.
No coordinated campaigns
Organized efforts to artificially inflate or damage a college’s score may result in related reviews being rejected or removed.
How a review becomes public
Submitting a review does not guarantee publication. Reviews remain pending until they are evaluated under these guidelines.
Submission
The reviewer provides ratings, written feedback, contact information, and required consent.
Moderation
The submission is reviewed for relevance, completeness, tone, and guideline compliance.
Decision
The review may be approved, rejected, returned to pending, or held for further review.
Public eligibility
Only approved reviews become eligible to affect public CampusGrader results.
What may appear publicly
CampusGrader collects some information for moderation and integrity purposes that is not displayed publicly.
May appear on CampusGrader
An approved written review, category ratings, permitted display name, reviewer role, program, attendance details, and other information the reviewer agreed to publish.
Kept private
Reviewer email, internal moderation notes, verification notes, and information collected only for administration or review integrity.
Questions about these guidelines
Does a review need to be positive?
No. Positive, negative, and mixed reviews are welcome when they are firsthand, relevant, respectful, and submitted in good faith.
Can CampusGrader change my review?
CampusGrader may make limited redactions or formatting corrections to protect privacy or improve readability. Those changes should not alter the meaning or direction of the reviewer’s opinion.
Why might a review remain pending?
A submission may remain pending while CampusGrader reviews missing information, possible conflicts, duplicate activity, eligibility, or other guideline concerns.
Can a college pay to remove a negative review?
No. A college cannot purchase review removal or pay to change a CampusGrader grade. Positive and negative reviews are evaluated under the same standards.
Does every college receive a numbered ranking?
No. A college must have at least three approved reviews before it becomes eligible for a numbered CampusGrader ranking.
Share an experience that helps another student
Focus on what you personally experienced, rate each category carefully, and provide enough context for readers to understand your perspective.