Terms of Use

These terms govern your use of bestcosmetologyprograms.com. Using the site means accepting them. If you do not accept them, stop using the site.

Accepting these terms

Accepting these terms happens by using the site, and they apply to every page of it. We may revise them, in which case the last updated date above moves and the revised version governs from the moment it is published.

Where the program data comes from

Program data on this site comes from three public sources, and every figure is attributed to the one it came from:

• The license file each state board publishes, for which schools hold a current license, in what city, and with what status. Where a board publishes an hour requirement, it is cited to the rule that sets it.
• The US Department of Education's College Scorecard, for the completion rates the state rankings are built on, reported by the institutions themselves.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics and O*NET, for wages, employment levels and occupational descriptions.

We republish those figures. We do not audit them, and we cannot verify that a program's own disclosure is accurate.

How to read the rankings

The rankings are computed from published outcomes, using the weights set out on our methodology page. They are our opinion, formed from public data by a stated formula, and they are not an accreditation decision, an endorsement, or professional advice.

One consequence is worth stating directly, because it is easy to misread. A program that scores lower may simply have published less. Scoring needs disclosed cohort outcomes, so a program with a thin published record scores below one with a full record, and nothing about that is a judgment of its teaching, its faculty or its graduates. Read a score as a statement about what a program discloses.

Accreditation and licensure are not the same thing

Accreditation and licensure are decided by different bodies, and in cosmetology they are further apart than in most fields. There is no programmatic accreditor at all. NACCAS accredits schools as institutions, which is a real thing and not a review of the course you would enroll in, so a school can be accredited while the program inside it has been reviewed by nobody.

What decides whether your training counts is the license your state board holds on that school, and the hour requirement that board sets, which runs from 1,000 to 2,000 clock hours depending on the state. Hours banked at a school that was not licensed at the time do not count toward the exam.

A license can lapse. Every record here is accurate as of the date that board's file was read, which is stated on the state page. Confirm a school's current license and your state's hour rule with the board itself before you enroll or pay anything.

What this site is not

This site is a reference work, not an adviser. Nothing here is legal advice, financial advice, academic advising, or career counseling, and reading it creates no professional relationship of any kind. School details, tuition, admission requirements and license status change without notice, so verify anything you intend to rely on with the school and with the board that licenses it.

Compensation and how it affects the rankings

Compensation is possible on this site and is disclosed where it applies. This site may receive compensation when readers request information from or enroll in programs featured here. Sponsored placements are labeled. Accreditation status, wage data, and program structure data are sourced directly from official records and are reported the same way regardless of partnership status.

No school pays for a position in a ranking, and no school is shown its entry before publication. A program's score is produced by the published formula from public data, and it would be the same number whether or not any commercial relationship existed.

Acceptable use of the site

Acceptable use covers reading, quoting with attribution, and linking. You agree not to:

• Use the site for anything unlawful
• Try to gain unauthorized access to our systems or interfere with the site running normally
• Scrape or bulk-copy the compiled rankings, scores or program dataset without written permission
• Republish substantial parts of the site as your own work, or without attribution

The underlying public records are not ours and you should go to the state boards, the Department of Education and the BLS for them directly. What we ask you not to take is the compiled and scored dataset, which is the work.

Content and intellectual property

Content on this site, meaning its writing, scoring model, compiled dataset, charts and design, is owned by Best Cosmetology Programs or used with permission. Government data reproduced here, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage figures, is in the public domain and free for you to use.

Quoting us is welcome. Quote a reasonable extract, and attribute it to bestcosmetologyprograms.com with a link to the page it came from.

Links to other sites

Links to other sites appear throughout, pointing at schools, accreditors and government agencies. They are there so you can check what we say against the source. We do not control those sites, we are not responsible for their content or their practices, and a link is not an endorsement.

Corrections

Corrections are welcome and we would rather hear about an error than not. If a figure here is wrong, or a program's record has changed, write to help@hakia.com with a source and we will check it. Where a correction changes a published figure we will make it and move the page's last updated date.

Limitation of liability

Our liability is limited to the extent the law allows. Best Cosmetology Programs, its owners and its contributors are not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or special damages arising from your use of the site or from any decision you make in reliance on it, including enrollment and financial decisions. The site is provided as is, without warranties of any kind.

Nothing in these terms limits any liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the United States and of the state in which the site's operator is established, without regard to conflict of law principles.

Contacting us about these terms

Questions about these terms go to help@hakia.com, which is the same address used for corrections and for privacy requests.