Priya Patel
TLDR:
– Five elite schools, including Columbia, Yale, and Brown, have agreed to pay a total of $104.5 million in a settlement to resolve claims that they colluded to limit financial aid to students.
– The schools were accused in a lawsuit filed in 2022 of working together to develop common standards for allocating financial aid, creating a “price-fixing cartel” that reduced competition in this area.
– The schools did not admit any wrongdoing, but agreed to pay the settlement to current and former students who were impacted by the alleged collusion.
Summary:
Five elite schools, including Columbia, Yale, and Brown, have agreed to pay a total of $104.5 million in a settlement to resolve allegations that they colluded to limit financial aid to students. The lawsuit, filed in 2022, accused nearly 20 top schools of participating in a “price-fixing cartel,” which aimed to reduce or eliminate financial aid as a competitive factor. The schools involved in the settlement, which also includes Emory and Duke, did not admit any wrongdoing but agreed to make cash payments to current and former students impacted by the alleged collusion.
The settlement amounts from each school are as follows: Brown will pay $19.5 million, Columbia and Duke will each pay $24 million, Emory and Yale will each pay $18.5 million. Students included in the settlement class will receive cash payments if they were enrolled in one of the named schools’ undergraduate programs full-time and received need-based financial aid that did not fully cover their tuition, fees, room, or board. The settlement class includes students from fall term 2003 through the settlement approval date at several schools, including UChicago, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn, Rice, Vanderbilt, and Yale. Students from Brown, Dartmouth, Emory, CalTech, and Johns Hopkins are also included.
While these five schools have reached a settlement, the other schools named in the lawsuit have yet to announce trial dates or progress toward reaching a settlement. However, students who attended any of the named schools are still eligible to receive cash payments. The settlement filing stated that class members can expect to receive email notifications about the payments within 30 days of the court order.
Overall, this settlement marks a significant development in the lawsuit against elite schools and brings some resolution to the allegations of collusion in limiting financial aid to students. The payments provided to impacted students aim to compensate them for any financial losses they may have incurred due to the alleged cartel.
