by Erin Guo
16 elite universities across America were sued in federal court over allegations that they were involved in a price-fixing scheme, while other colleges were accused of discriminating against low-income applicants.
The 16 schools include Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, UPenn, and Yale, as well as Caltech, Duke, Emory, Georgetown, MIT, Northwestern, Rice, University of Chicago, University of Notre Dame and Vanderbilt.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court on January 9th by five students who formerly attended the schools. The plaintiffs claim that the universities conspired to inflate the cost of attendance for all students receiving financial aid and eliminate competitive financial aid offers in order to maintain their reputation of exclusivity.
The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status, which means others can join in on the suit. If lawsuit prevails, the universities will have been in violation of Section 568 of a 1994 federal education law which says that universities can collaborate when they create their financial aid formulas, but they can not consider applicants’ financial need in their individual admission decisions, also known as need-blind colleges and universities.
The lawsuit seeks damages and calls for ending the defendant's scheme, preventing future students from going through what has happened. It also seeks compensation for all those who enrolled in one or more of the school’s full-time undergraduate programs and those who received the financial aid packages that did not fully cover the cost of tuition, room, or board from one or more of the schools.
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