Is Niche a Scam?

If you’re thinking of using Niche, you need to know whether it’s safe. Is Niche a scam? 

Below, we explain whether Niche is a scam and discuss some steps you can take to improve your safety while using this platform that provides rankings for schools, colleges, and neighborhoods.

What Is Niche?

Niche is a website that ranks and reviews schools, colleges, and school districts across the US. 

The platform also features scholarship listings, has a “Direct Admissions” feature where colleges can accept students based on their Niche profile, and provides tools to help students personalize their school search. 

The company was originally founded in 2002. At the time, it was called College Prowler, and it produced print guidebooks on US colleges. It was rebranded to Niche in 2013. 

Niche pulls data from government sources like the US Department of Education, Census Bureau, FBI crime reports, NCES, user-submitted surveys, and reviews. 

In addition to schools and colleges, Niche also ranks places to live in the US. 

Is Niche a Scam?

No, Niche is not a scam. It’s a legitimate website that ranks schools, colleges, and places to live in the US. 

User reviews of Niche are mixed as of this writing.

For example, the platform gets 2.0 out of 5.0 stars (from over 10 reviews) on Trustpilot and 1.14 out of 5.0 stars (from over 5 reviews) on Better Business Bureau. 

Multiple people allege that their negative reviews were deleted from Niche even though they didn’t violate any rules.

Several people also report that their personal information was shared or sold, leading to unwanted telemarketing emails. 

On online forums like Reddit, people generally say that when it comes to schools and colleges, Niche rankings are not accurate, but that reviews and comments can be.

One person says:

“Niche comments are useful but its rankings are not accurate. A lot of the students ranking their own school have no idea what they are talking about.”

In another Reddit thread, a student asks whether Niche is a scam after receiving ascholarship offer from a private Texas school despite having “mid grades,” no essay, and no SAT scores.

People’s response: Niche is not a scam, but the “scholarships” on it are really just tuition discounts.

In that same thread, a person shares how they verified their offer by emailing the admissions officer directly, then completing the application through the school’s official portal to confirm it was legitimate.

As for places to live, most Redditors say Niche doesn’t seem accurate.

A user reports:

“The only thing I know about Niche is that I happened upon it today and what caught my eye was that the information provided about one of the mountains near me was incorrect. So I looked up one of the towns where information can easily be verified, and Niche had wrong information again.”

Niche is not Better Business Bureau accredited, but holds an “A+” rating at the time of writing. BBB ratings reflect how the BBB believes a business interacts with its customers. 

The business has received 0 complaints on the BBB website as of this writing.

Niche security 

In its privacy policy, Niche briefly describes its security measures. 

It states that it maintains “reasonable physical, technical and administrative safeguards.” 

These include regularly updating and testing the platform’s security technology, restricting access to your personal information to employees who need it to deliver services, and providing employee training on data privacy and security. 

Niche privacy  

Niche explains in its privacy policy what data it collects, why, and with whom it shares it.

It may collect the following personal information directly from you: 

• Account information, including your name, email address, and phone number. 
• Profile details, like your age, education, test scores, work history, and goals. 
• Scholarship-related information, such as your graduation year. 
• Messages, support requests, and calls.
• Public posts (reviews, surveys, blog comments). Note that these become public and searchable. 

The platform may also collect certain information automatically. This includes your IP address, browser, device information, pages visited, searches, and timestamps. 

Additionally, it may collect information from third parties, such as social media platforms, analytics and tracking tools, business partners, and vendors.

Niche uses your data to provide its services (school rankings, scholarship listings, recommendations), respond to inquiries, send marketing communications, maintain site functionality, and comply with legal obligations.

The platform may sell or share your personal information with advertisers, schools, realtors, loan providers, and other business partners.

It also states that it shares data with processors that help run its services and may disclose information for legal compliance or during business transactions, such as mergers.

By providing your phone number, you consent to telemarketing calls and texts, even if you’re on Do-Not-Call lists. You can revoke this by removing your number from your profile.

You can request that Niche stop selling your personal information by using its webform, sending an email to privacy@niche.com, or clicking “Do Not Sell My Information.” You can also unsubscribe from Niche’s email newsletters. 

However, you cannot opt out of sharing with their processors or business partners.

Residents of certain states (such as California) can request to know what personal information has been collected, request deletion of their data, and opt out of sales. 

Niche says it retains data as long as reasonably necessary for its purposes. 

It does not honor “Do Not Track” browser signals. 

So, Should You Use Niche?

Depends.

Niche is a real company that’s been around since 2002 and holds an A+ BBB rating. 

However, user reviews are very mixed, and there are some significant concerns worth considering. 

If you use it, treat the rankings skeptically and focus on reading individual reviews instead. 

And if you’re very privacy-sensitive or don’t want marketing outreach at all, you may want to skip it.

How to Use Niche Safely and Privately 

• Share the least amount of personal information possible. Only provide what’s absolutely required to create a Niche account. If a field is optional, leave it blank.
• Use a “throwaway” or masked email. Create a separate email just for college search sites like Niche to stop marketing emails from flooding your primary inbox. If you’re a DeleteMe customer, you can use DeleteMe’s masked email addresses. 
• Prioritize reviews over rankings. Niche rankings are crowdsourced and weighted by data that may not reflect your priorities. Rather than relying on rankings, a better approach is to read multiple student reviews and see if you can find patterns. 
• Don’t share your phone number if you can avoid it. If you give your number to Niche, you consent to calls, texts, and robocalls, even if you’re on the national or state Do Not Call lists. Opting out later is possible, but the damage may already be done. 
• Opt out of data sales immediately. Use the “Do Not Sell My Information” option or email privacy@niche.com with your request. Do this as soon as you use the site – opting out later won’t undo data already shared.
• Assume advertisers may keep your data. Note that even after opting out, advertisers may retain copies obtained earlier. 
• Opt out of email marketing. In any Niche email, click the “unsubscribe” link (usually at the bottom of every email). 
• Think twice before posting anything public. Reviews, surveys, comments, and blog posts are public, indexed by search engines, and effectively permanent. A good rule of thumb is: If you wouldn’t put it on LinkedIn or Google with your name attached, don’t post it.
• Treat scholarships and “interest” clicks carefully. Clicking “interested,” applying, or opting in can trigger data sharing with schools, employers, or advertisers, and these partners may market to you directly afterward. Only engage with opportunities you genuinely want.
• Limit cookie and tracking exposure. Check and adjust cookie settings (via Niche’s Cookie Policy). Use your browser privacy settings and tracker blockers.
• Don’t link social media unless necessary. Connecting social accounts allows cross-platform tracking. 
• Don’t rely on Niche alone. Use the platform as one data point. Pair it with College Navigator (a free tool maintained by the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics for researching postsecondary institutions,  schools’ official outcome data, online forums like Reddit (carefully), and conversations with students or admissions.