Terms of Service

1. Agreement to these terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of Vantage (the "Service"), operated by Vantage ("we," "us," "our"). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. Who can use Vantage

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If you are under 18, you must review these Terms and our Privacy Policy with a parent or guardian before using the Service. By creating an account, you confirm you meet these age requirements.

If you are under 18 and want a paid subscription, a parent or guardian must authorize the purchase on your behalf. Payment information entered during checkout is treated as provided by an adult with the authority to enter into this agreement.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn we have collected such information, we will delete it. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us information, contact us at privacy@my-vantage.app.

3. Your account

You are responsible for keeping your login credentials secure and for all activity under your account. Do not share your account with others, including family members who want to use the Service for their own applications — each user needs their own account.

Notify us immediately at support@my-vantage.app if you suspect unauthorized access.

4. What Vantage does (and doesn't do)

Vantage helps students develop college application essays through AI-generated feedback, brainstorming support, and holistic application review. The feedback is automated and advisory. It is not:

• A guarantee, prediction, or endorsement of college admission
• A substitute for a school counselor, teacher, or admissions professional
• Legal, financial, medical, or mental-health advice
• A ghostwriting service — the AI guides your thinking but does not write your essays for you, and submitting AI-generated text as your own work may violate your target college's academic integrity policies

Always use your own judgment, and consult your school counselor or the admissions office at your target schools when you need authoritative guidance.

5. Ownership of content

Your content is yours. The essays, Insight Question answers, profile information, and other content you write in Vantage remain your intellectual property. By using the Service, you grant us a limited license to store, process, and display your content to you — and to transmit it to our AI subprocessors — solely to provide the Service to you.

We do not use your essays or other content to train AI models. Our AI subprocessor (Google Gemini) processes your content on a per-request basis and does not retain it for training by default under its enterprise API terms.

Our platform is ours. The Service itself — software, AI system prompts, user interface, feedback methodology, branding, and trademarks — is the exclusive property of Vantage and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws. Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of the Service to you.

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Attempt to reverse-engineer, extract, copy, or reproduce the AI system prompts, feedback logic, or underlying software
• Use the Service or its output to train another AI model or build a competing product
• Scrape, bulk-download, or automate requests beyond personal use
• Share your account, redistribute AI feedback to non-Vantage users, or use one account for multiple students
• Submit content that is illegal, defamatory, or infringes others' rights
• Attempt to bypass authentication, rate limits, usage caps, or any other technical controls
• Use the Service to harass, impersonate, or harm another person

Violation of this section may result in immediate termination of your account with no refund.

7. Subscriptions, usage limits, and billing

Vantage offers a free tier with monthly usage limits on AI features (per-user budget caps on AI feedback calls; specific limits may change over time). When you reach your monthly limit, AI features pause until the next calendar month or until you upgrade.

Paid subscriptions are billed through Stripe. By subscribing, you authorize recurring charges to your chosen payment method. If you are under 18, a parent or guardian must authorize the purchase.

You may cancel at any time from your account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; we do not provide prorated refunds for partial periods except where required by law.

We reserve the right to change pricing with at least 30 days' notice to current subscribers.

8. Third-party services

We rely on the following subprocessors to operate the Service. Each has its own terms and privacy policies:

• Supabase — database and authentication
• Google Gemini API — AI feedback generation
• Vercel — web hosting and serverless functions
• Stripe — payment processing
• Resend — transactional email
• Upstash — rate limiting and usage tracking

See our Privacy Policy for details on what data each subprocessor receives.

9. Account termination

You may delete your account at any time from the Profile page. Deletion is permanent and removes your essays, essay versions, Insight Question answers, college list, activities, awards, AI guidance history, and subscription record. This action cannot be undone.

We may terminate your account, with or without notice, if you violate these Terms, abuse the Service, attempt fraud, or engage in activity that damages the Service or other users.

10. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, that AI feedback will be accurate or suitable for your purposes, or that your use of the Service will result in any particular college admissions outcome.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Vantage disclaims all implied warranties including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Vantage's total liability to you for any claims arising out of or related to the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim or (b) US $100.

We are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or punitive damages — including lost admissions decisions, lost scholarships, emotional distress, or reputational harm — even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Some jurisdictions do not allow these limitations; in those jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the smallest amount permitted by law.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold Vantage harmless from claims, losses, and expenses arising out of (a) your content, (b) your violation of these Terms, or (c) your violation of any third party's rights.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Effective" date above and, for material changes, provide notice through the Service or by email. Continued use of the Service after the effective date of updated Terms constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

14. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of [specify state — consult lawyer], without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally will be brought in the state or federal courts located in [specify venue], and you consent to that jurisdiction and venue.

[Reserved for arbitration and class-action-waiver clauses if applicable — consult your attorney.]

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Reach us at support@my-vantage.app. For privacy requests specifically, see our Privacy Policy.