Privacy Policy

The College Cost Hack
Operated by Beyond the GPA LLC
Last Updated: August 2026

At The College Cost Hack, we respect your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains what information we may collect when you use our website, quizzes, College Action Plan, interactive tools, digital products, and other resources, as well as how we use and protect that information.

By using The College Cost Hack website and its tools, you acknowledge the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

1. Who We Are

The College Cost Hack is owned and operated by Beyond the GPA LLC.

We provide educational information, college-planning tools, interactive resources, digital products, and personalized educational recommendations designed to help students and families navigate the college planning process.

2. Information We May Collect

The information we collect depends on how you use the website.

Information You Provide

When using our College Action Plan, quizzes, forms, or other interactive tools, you may choose to provide information such as:

  • Name

  • Email address

  • Parent or guardian email address

  • High school grade level

  • GPA or GPA range

  • SAT or ACT testing status or score range

  • Academic interests

  • Intended major or career interests

  • College preferences

  • Geographic preferences

  • College affordability concerns

  • Extracurricular interests and activities

  • College-planning priorities

  • Answers to quizzes, questionnaires, or interactive tools

You may also provide information when purchasing a product, subscribing to emails, contacting us, or participating in a College Cost Hack program.

Please do not submit highly sensitive personal information through our interactive tools unless specifically requested.

3. How We Use Your Information

We may use information you provide to:

  • Generate your personalized College Action Plan

  • Recommend educational resources or next steps

  • Suggest college categories or potential college matches

  • Provide Hidden Ivy recommendations when appropriate

  • Recommend relevant planning tools, checklists, templates, or guides

  • Personalize your experience on the website

  • Deliver products or resources you request

  • Respond to questions or customer-service requests

  • Send requested educational information

  • Improve our tools and resources

  • Understand how families use The College Cost Hack

  • Maintain and improve the operation and security of our website

We do not sell your personal information.

4. Personalized Recommendations

Some College Cost Hack tools use the information you provide to generate educational recommendations.

For example, your answers may be used to identify:

  • College-planning priorities

  • Suggested next steps

  • College-list strategies

  • Hidden Ivy opportunities

  • Financial-planning resources

  • Testing resources

  • Application resources

  • Activities and extracurricular resources

These recommendations are educational in nature and are not admissions decisions or guarantees.

5. Free and Optional Paid Resources

Your College Action Plan may recommend free resources as well as optional paid products or services.

Purchasing a recommended resource is not required to receive your basic College Action Plan.

Recommendations may be based on the answers you provide and the resources we believe may be helpful for your situation.

6. Information About Students and Minors

The College Cost Hack is designed primarily to support families navigating the college-planning process. Some users may be high school students under the age of 18.

Parents and guardians are encouraged to participate in the college-planning process and supervise minors' use of the website.

Our services are not intended to knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13 without appropriate parental consent.

If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information to us without appropriate authorization, please contact us so that we can review and, where appropriate, delete the information.

7. Partner Organizations

Families may sometimes access The College Cost Hack through a tutoring company, educational organization, counselor, school, or other partner.

If you access The College Cost Hack through one of these organizations, certain information about your participation may be shared with that organization only when disclosed to you and appropriate for providing the service.

We do not automatically give partner organizations unrestricted access to personal student information.

Any future partner program involving data sharing will be subject to appropriate privacy disclosures and agreements.

8. Email Communications

If you provide your email address and consent to receive communications, we may send you:

  • Your College Action Plan or quiz results

  • Requested resources

  • College-planning information

  • Educational tips

  • Product or program information

  • Relevant updates from The College Cost Hack

You may unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time using the unsubscribe link contained in those messages.

Transactional emails necessary to deliver a product or requested resource may still be sent.

9. Purchases and Payment Information

Payments may be processed through third-party payment processors such as Stripe.

The College Cost Hack does not need to store your complete credit-card number when payments are processed through a third-party payment provider.

Payment providers maintain their own privacy and security practices, and their policies apply to information you provide directly to them.

10. Automatically Collected Information

Like many websites, we or our website providers may automatically collect certain technical information, such as:

  • Browser type

  • Device type

  • Approximate location based on IP address

  • Pages visited

  • Referring pages

  • Time spent on the website

  • Website interactions

  • IP address

  • General website usage information

This information may be used to operate the website, understand how visitors use it, improve our resources, troubleshoot technical issues, and measure website performance.

11. Cookies and Analytics

The College Cost Hack and its service providers may use cookies or similar technologies to operate the website, remember preferences, analyze website usage, and improve the user experience.

Some third-party services used by the website may also place cookies according to their own privacy policies.

Where required by applicable law, users will be provided with appropriate choices regarding non-essential cookies.

12. Third-Party Service Providers

We may use third-party companies to help operate The College Cost Hack.

These may include providers for:

  • Website hosting

  • Email delivery

  • Payment processing

  • Analytics

  • Forms and quizzes

  • Interactive tools

  • Database or cloud storage

  • Customer support

These providers may process information only as necessary to perform services on our behalf and according to their own applicable privacy obligations.

13. Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools

Some College Cost Hack features may use automated systems or artificial intelligence to help organize information, generate educational recommendations, personalize resources, or assist with College Action Plans.

When such systems are used, their output is intended as educational guidance, not as an admissions decision or guarantee.

We encourage families to verify important college information directly with official sources before making decisions.

14. Third-Party Links

The College Cost Hack may link to external websites such as colleges and universities, FAFSA resources, testing organizations, scholarship providers, or other educational resources.

Once you leave our website, the privacy practices of the third-party website apply.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of websites we do not operate.

15. How We Protect Information

We take reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect personal information.

However, no website, database, or online transmission can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

Users should therefore use appropriate care when providing personal information online.

16. How Long We Keep Information

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including providing requested services, maintaining appropriate business records, complying with legal obligations, resolving disputes, and improving our services.

Information that is no longer reasonably needed may be deleted or anonymized.

17. Your Privacy Choices

Depending on applicable law and your relationship with us, you may be able to request that we:

  • Provide information about personal data we maintain about you

  • Correct inaccurate information

  • Delete certain personal information

  • Stop sending marketing communications

  • Address questions about how your information is being used

To make a privacy request, contact us using the information below.

We may need to verify your identity before completing certain requests.

18. Florida and Other State Privacy Rights

Residents of certain states may have additional privacy rights under applicable state law.

Where such laws apply to The College Cost Hack, we will honor applicable rights and requests as required.

Nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to limit rights provided to consumers under applicable law.

19. Changes to This Privacy Policy

As The College Cost Hack grows, we may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to our website, technology, products, partnerships, or legal obligations.

When we make changes, we will update the Last Updated date at the top of this page.

We encourage users to review this Privacy Policy periodically.

20. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, want to make a privacy request, or believe personal information has been submitted improperly, please contact:

Beyond the GPA LLC
Doing business as The College Cost Hack

Email: [your business email address]

Website: collegecosthack.com