Terms of use

Who runs this

BeforeYouEnroll is an independent student project. It is not run by, affiliated with, or endorsed by the University of Massachusetts Boston. Using the site means you agree to these terms.

Who can post

Anyone can read. Only signed-in students with a verified @umb.edu email can post reviews, replies, syllabi, flags, helpful marks, and award votes. One account per person. Review classes you actually took.

What you can post

Everything you post has to follow the review guidelines. In short: rate the class, not the person; no names of other students, contact details, harassment, hate, or made-up reviews; and only share syllabi you received for a class.

Reviews are opinions

Reviews and replies are the personal opinions of the students who wrote them. They are not facts checked by us, and they are not the views of BeforeYouEnroll or UMass Boston. Scores are averages of those opinions. Use them as one input alongside the course catalog and your advisor.

Your content

• You keep the rights to what you write.
• By posting, you let us show it on the site, in summaries of it, and in links people share. You also let us edit out personal details or remove it.
• You can edit a review for 30 days and delete it any time. A deleted review comes off the site.

Moderation and removal

• Anyone signed in can flag a review or reply. Three open flags from different students hide it until we decide.
• We keep, hide, or remove flagged posts based on the guidelines. Removing a review also removes its points.
• We may remove anything that breaks these terms, and suspend accounts that keep doing it.
• Professors and anyone else can report a post through the contact form. We read every report. If your review was removed and you think that was wrong, write to us there too.

Professors

A professor can claim their profile with the @umb.edu email listed on their UMB faculty page. We check every claim by hand. A claimed professor can write a short note on their page, which we can remove if it breaks these terms. They can't edit, hide or remove reviews, never see who wrote anything, and their account can't post reviews or vote in the awards.

Points, levels and awards

Points and levels are for fun. They have no cash value, can't be traded, and only you see yours. Award winners come from student votes and review scores. No one can pay to change a rating or an award. We may change how points, levels, and awards work.

No guarantees

The site is provided as is. We try to keep the catalog and numbers right but can't promise they're complete, current, or error-free. Check official university sources before you register.

Changes

We may update these terms. The newest version is always on this page. Last updated November 2026.