The agreement between us.

1. The agreement

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are a contract between you and SaharaT20 LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“SaharaT20”, “we”, “us”). They govern your use of saharat20.com, our accounts, and every service we arrange (together, the “Service”).

1. 1.1You accept these Terms by ticking the acceptance box when you create an account, by clicking “Approve” on a proposed expert, or by paying for a service. We record the version you accepted and when.
2. 1.2Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle information about you and any student; it forms part of these Terms.
3. 1.3If you are creating an account or requesting a service for a student under 18, you confirm that you are that student's parent or legal guardian and that you accept these Terms on your own behalf and on the student's behalf.
4. 1.4These Terms took effect on 27 September 2026 and replace the interim commitments previously published at this address.

2. Who may use the Service

1. 2.1Parents and guardians. You must be at least 18 and the parent or legal guardian of any student you request services for.
2. 2.2Students aged 13 to 17. You may open an account to send requests, see your file, and take part in sessions. You must name a parent or legal guardian; only that adult can approve an expert and pay. A request made from a student account is not a contract until the named adult approves it, and every service we provide to a minor is provided under a contract with that adult.
3. 2.3Students aged 18 and over. You act for yourself.
4. 2.4Under 13. We do not knowingly create accounts for, or collect information from, children under 13. If we learn that we have, we delete the account and its data.
5. 2.5Educators. Tutors, mentors, readers and faculty (“Experts”) use the Service under a separate Expert Agreement. Where these Terms and that agreement conflict for an Expert, the Expert Agreement governs.
6. 2.6You must give accurate information when you create an account and keep it current. One person, one account.

3. Accounts and security

1. 3.1You are responsible for everything done from your account. Keep your password private and tell us at once if you think your account has been used without permission.
2. 3.2Sign-in requires a password and a one-time code sent to your email on each new device. We may add further checks if we see unusual activity.
3. 3.3A parent or guardian linked to a student aged 13–17 can see that student's requests, documents, sessions, saved items and messages from their own account. The student is told this inside the Service. This visibility is a condition of a minor holding an account.
4. 3.4We may suspend or close an account that breaks these Terms, endangers a student, or is used to abuse the Service. Where the law allows, we will tell you why.

4. What the Service is — and is not

1. 4.1SaharaT20 is a platform that matches families with independent Experts for admissions reviews, essay feedback, tutoring, test preparation, research mentorship, interview practice and small-group classes, and that handles scheduling, records, and payment.
2. 4.2We do not predict or promise admission outcomes. No odds, percentages, “chances” or assurances about where a student will be admitted, at any price, in any form. Any Expert who offers one is breaking their agreement with us; tell us.
3. 4.3No Expert writes any part of a student's application. Experts question, critique, cut and redirect. They do not draft, rewrite or edit essays, activity descriptions or any other application text on the student's behalf. We keep every version of every document a student submits so that this can be shown.
4. 4.4We are independent. SaharaT20 is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any university, college, school, testing organisation or admissions office. Nothing we or an Expert say reflects the views of any institution.
5. 4.5We are not a school, a licensed counselling service, or a substitute for one. We do not provide medical, psychological, legal, immigration or financial advice.
6. 4.6Each service is described on its own page: what is included, who does the work, how long it takes, and the price. That description is the whole scope of what you are buying.

5. Requests, proposals and approval

1. 5.1You send a request describing what the student needs. Within two business days (US Eastern) we either propose a specific Expert — telling you what we checked about them and when — or tell you we cannot help.
2. 5.2A proposal is an offer. No contract for the service exists, and nothing is charged, until the contracting adult approves the Expert and completes payment. You may decline any proposal without giving a reason and without owing anything.
3. 5.3If the proposed Expert becomes unavailable before work starts, we propose another with comparable background and tell you why, or refund you in full if you prefer.
4. 5.4Small-group classes run only when a cohort reaches its minimum. We confirm dates and the teacher before asking anyone to pay. If a cohort does not fill, nobody is charged.
5. 5.5We may decline a request, or end a service after it starts, where we believe the request is not a fit, cannot be delivered safely, or breaks these Terms. If you have paid, we refund the part not delivered.

6. Prices, payment and taxes

1. 6.1Prices are shown in US dollars on each service page and on the proposal. The price you approve is the price you pay. Our platform fee is included in that price; it is never deducted from what the Expert earns.
2. 6.2Payment is by a secure link operated by Stripe, Inc. We never see or store your card number. By paying you also accept Stripe's terms for the transaction.
3. 6.3Hourly services are billed per hour booked, in advance. Fixed-price services and class seats are paid in full when you approve.
4. 6.4Prices exclude any sales or use tax that applies to you; where we are required to collect it, it is shown before you pay.
5. 6.5If a payment fails or is reversed, the related service pauses until it is resolved. Chargebacks made instead of contacting us first are treated as a dispute under §14.

7. Cancellations and refunds

These rules are binding on both of us. To ask for a refund, write to support@saharat20.com from the account's email; we reply within two business days.

1. 7.1Before work starts: full refund, no questions asked, for any service — including if you simply change your mind.
2. 7.2Fixed-price deliverables (for example an Admissions Review or an essay review): once the Expert has begun, the fee is earned as the work is delivered. If a delivered piece does not match the scope stated on its service page, tell us within 14 days of delivery and we will have it corrected or refund it in full. Disagreement with an Expert's honest assessment is not, by itself, a scope failure.
3. 7.3Hourly sessions (tutoring, test preparation, mentorship): a session may be rescheduled or cancelled without charge up to 24 hours before it starts. Inside 24 hours, or if the student does not attend, the hour is charged. If the Expert cancels inside 24 hours or does not attend, the hour is refunded and the next one is free.
4. 7.4Classes: a seat is fully refundable until the cohort is confirmed and until 7 days before the first session. After that, no refund for missed sessions; a recording is provided. If we cancel a class, every seat is refunded in full.
5. 7.5Multi-month programmes: the unused whole months are refunded if you cancel with 14 days' notice.
6. 7.6Refunds go back to the original payment method within 10 business days of our confirmation.
7. 7.7Nothing here limits any refund right you have under law that cannot be waived.

8. Experts

1. 8.1Experts are independent contractors, not our employees or agents. They decide whether to accept a request, and they do the work in their own professional judgment.
2. 8.2Before an Expert works with any student we check the specific credentials shown on their profile — enrolment, degree, or employment — and the profile states exactly what was checked and when. We do not claim to have checked anything not listed there.
3. 8.3Before an Expert holds any live one-to-one session with a student under 18, we require an identity check and a criminal-background check, renewed at least every 24 months. A profile shows “Background check completed” with the month only once that is on file.
4. 8.4Experts agree in writing to: keep every family's information confidential; never write any part of an application; never predict outcomes; never contact a student outside the platform or exchange personal contact details; decline to work with a student applying to the institution that currently enrols or employs them; and never write a recommendation letter for a student they met here.
5. 8.5If an Expert breaks these rules, tell us. We investigate every report, and we remove Experts who endanger students.

9. Live sessions, recordings and communication

1. 9.1Every live session takes place on a meeting link we issue and is recorded. Recordings exist so that a parent can review a session and so that concerns can be investigated. By approving a service that includes live sessions, the contracting adult consents to recording on the student's behalf and on their own if they attend. Where the law requires each participant's consent, joining the session is that consent.
2. 9.2A parent or guardian may join any live session with their student, announced or not.
3. 9.3Recordings are kept for 90 days after the session, then deleted, unless a complaint, dispute or legal requirement requires us to keep a specific recording longer.
4. 9.4All communication between a family and an Expert happens inside the Service. Experts may not give or ask for personal email addresses, phone numbers, or social-media handles, and families should not offer them. Messages that appear to contain contact details may be held for review.
5. 9.5Sessions with a student under 18 are not scheduled before 7 am or after 9 pm in the student's local time.

10. Academic integrity and your work

1. 10.1The student owns everything they write. Submitting a document to the Service does not transfer ownership.
2. 10.2You grant us and the assigned Expert a limited licence to store, view and comment on submitted documents solely to deliver the service you bought. That licence ends when the service ends, except that we keep the version history described in §4 for the period in the Privacy Policy.
3. 10.3You agree not to ask an Expert to write, rewrite or “polish” application text, and not to submit work as the student's own that an Expert wrote. Experts are required to refuse; we may end a service, without refund of work already delivered, if a family persists.
4. 10.4We may state, if a school or institution asks with the student's or contracting adult's consent, that the platform's records show the work was the student's own. We do not share records otherwise except as the Privacy Policy describes.

11. Acceptable use

1. 11.1You will not: use the Service for anyone under 13; misrepresent your age, identity or relationship to a student; harass, threaten or abuse anyone; share another person's private information; upload malware or attempt to access accounts, data or systems that are not yours; scrape or copy the Service; resell or sublicense it; or use it to break any law or academic-honesty rule.
2. 11.2We may remove content and suspend or close accounts that break this section.

12. Our content

1. 12.1The Service — its design, text, code, marks and the name SaharaT20 — belongs to us or our licensors. You may use it only as these Terms allow. Materials an Expert prepares for a class or session are for the enrolled student's personal, non-commercial use and may not be redistributed.
2. 12.2If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them without obligation to you.

13. Disclaimers and limits on liability

Read this section carefully; it limits what you can claim from us.

1. 13.1THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT ANY GRADE, SCORE, ADMISSION, SCHOLARSHIP OR OTHER OUTCOME.
2. 13.2TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, NEITHER WE NOR OUR EXPERTS ARE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST OPPORTUNITIES, TUITION, OR ADMISSION DECISIONS, ARISING FROM THE SERVICE.
3. 13.3TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE AND (B) US $100.
4. 13.4These limits do not apply to liability that cannot be limited by law, including for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for our wilful misconduct. Some jurisdictions do not allow some of these limits; in those places they apply only as far as the law permits.
5. 13.5You agree to indemnify us and our Experts against third-party claims arising from your breach of these Terms or your misuse of the Service, except to the extent caused by our own breach or negligence.

14. Resolving disputes

Please contact us first — most problems are solved in a day. This section applies if that fails. It requires individual arbitration and waives class actions and jury trials, and it lets you opt out.

1. 14.1Talk to us first. Before starting arbitration or a claim, send a written description of the problem to legal@saharat20.com. We will do the same to your account email. If we have not resolved it within 60 days, either of us may proceed.
2. 14.2Small claims. Either of us may bring an individual claim in small-claims court instead of arbitration, if it qualifies there.
3. 14.3Arbitration. Otherwise, any dispute arising from these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. Hearings may be held by video; any in-person hearing will be in the county where you live or in New Castle County, Delaware, at your choice. The arbitrator applies these Terms and can award what a court could, to you individually. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this clause.
4. 14.4Fees. For claims under US $10,000 we pay all arbitration filing and arbitrator fees beyond any initial fee the AAA rules require of you, unless the arbitrator finds the claim frivolous. Each side pays its own lawyers unless the law or the arbitrator says otherwise.
5. 14.5No class actions or jury trials. Claims may be brought only on an individual basis, not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, consolidated or representative proceeding. To the extent a claim proceeds in court, both of us waive a jury trial.
6. 14.630-day opt-out. You may reject this arbitration clause by emailing legal@saharat20.com within 30 days of first accepting these Terms, with your account email and a clear statement that you opt out. Opting out does not affect the rest of these Terms.
7. 14.7Severability. If the class-action waiver is found unenforceable for a particular claim, that claim proceeds in court, not in arbitration; the rest of this section still applies.
8. 14.8Claims for injunctive relief about intellectual property may be brought in court.

15. Governing law

1. 15.1These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware and the federal laws of the United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except where the consumer-protection law of the state where you live gives you rights that cannot be taken away. Subject to §14, courts in Delaware have jurisdiction.
2. 15.2Families outside the United States. The Service is offered from the United States. If you use it from elsewhere, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for local law. Some services may not be available in every country.

16. Changes, notices and the rest

1. 16.1We may change these Terms. For material changes we give at least 14 days' notice by email and inside your account, and ask you to accept the new version; the version in force for a paid service is the one you accepted when you approved it. Continuing to use the Service after the notice period means you accept the change, except for §14, which changes only with your express agreement.
2. 16.2We may change, suspend or discontinue any part of the Service. If we discontinue a service you have paid for, we refund the undelivered part.
3. 16.3Notices to us go to legal@saharat20.com. Notices to you go to your account email.
4. 16.4If any part of these Terms is unenforceable, the rest stays in force. Our not enforcing a term is not a waiver. You may not transfer these Terms; we may transfer them to a successor that takes on our obligations, with notice to you. These Terms and the documents they refer to are the entire agreement between us about the Service.

17. Contact

1. 17.1SaharaT20 LLC · legal@saharat20.com · support: support@saharat20.com · privacy: privacy@saharat20.com.