Financial Aid Antitrust Class Action Settlement

Settlements totaling $284 million have been reached to resolve a class action lawsuit that alleged 17 top private colleges and universities conspired to fix the amounts of financial aid students received and, as a result, provided less financial aid than they would have absent the purportedly anticompetitive scheme. The massive price-fixing lawsuit claimed students overpaid to attend the universities (listed below) during certain periods, beginning as early as 2003, due to the schools’ anti-competitive conduct.

The 17 colleges named as defendants in the class action suit include Brown University, California Institute of Technology, University of Chicago, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, Emory University, Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Northwestern University, University of Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, William Marsh Rice University, Vanderbilt University and Yale University.

The recent settlements, reached with 10 of these institutions, will provide cash benefits to students who attended any of the 17 universities and received need-based financial aid to cover some, but not all, attendance costs, such as tuition, fees, room and board.

The universities, which will pay a collective total of $284 million in cash benefits for the financial aid antitrust settlement, include Brown, UChicago, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Northwestern, Rice, Vanderbilt and Yale.

As part of the settlements, each college has agreed to pay a specific amount:

• UChicago will pay $13.5 million;
• Emory will pay $18.5 million;
• Yale will pay $18.5 million;
• Brown will pay $19.5 million;
• Columbia will pay $24 million;
• Duke will pay $24 million;
• Dartmouth will pay $33.75 million;
• Rice will pay $33.75 million;
• Northwestern will pay $43.5 million; and
• Vanderbilt will pay $55 million.

The seven remaining defendants—CalTech, Cornell, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Notre Dame and Penn—have not reached a settlement with the plaintiffs in the case.

The financial aid settlements cover any United States citizen or permanent resident who, during the periods outlined below, enrolled in one or more of the universities’ full-time undergraduate programs; received at least some need-based financial aid from the school or schools; and whose tuition, fees, room or board to attend was not fully covered by the combination of any type of financial or merit aid (excluding loans) in any undergraduate year.

The settlements cover eligible individuals who attended the universities at any time during the following periods:

• UChicago, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Rice, Vanderbilt or Yale, from Fall Term 2003 through February 28, 2024;
• Brown, Dartmouth or Emory, from Fall Term 2004 through February 28, 2024;
• CalTech, from Fall Term 2019 through February 28, 2024; and
• Johns Hopkins, from Fall Term 2021 through February 28, 2024.

The financial aid settlements do not apply to those whose total attendance costs—including tuition, fees, room and board for each undergraduate academic year—were covered by a form of financial or merit aid (excluding loans) from the universities.

Importantly, although only 10 colleges involved in the class action suit have reached settlements, eligible class members who attended any of the 17 universities named as defendants may file a claim for a settlement rebate.

Yes. The financial aid antitrust settlement is legitimate, and FinancialAidAntitrustSettlement.com has been established as the official, court-approved website for the deal. Current and former students of the university defendants can visit the website if they want to submit a claim form, learn more about the college financial aid lawsuit or email the settlement administrator, Angeion Group LLC.

To submit a claim form online, head to this page. Alternatively, you can download a PDF claim form or email the settlement administrator to request a paper copy to return by mail. A copy of the financial aid settlement claim form was included in the personalized settlement notice you may have received by mail or email.

To file a claim form, you will need to provide documentation proving you attended one or more of the universities during the qualifying period, such as a transcript, diploma, copy of your student ID or another form of proof.

You will also need the unique notice ID and confirmation code found on the notice you may have received. If you did not receive a settlement notice, you can still submit a claim.

Yes. You must file a claim by December 17, 2024 to be eligible to receive a financial aid antitrust settlement payout.

The settlements were granted final approval by the court following a hearing on July 19, 2024. According to the judge’s 16-page final approval order, the settlement administrator will provide a report to the court after the December 17 claims deadline, and settlement payments will be issued to eligible class members once this report is approved.

The class action lawsuit, filed in January 2022, alleged that the university defendants engaged in a “longstanding conspiracy” to limit the financial aid they provided, such that the schools artificially inflated the costs some students paid to attend.

According to the suit, the schools claimed to be exempt from liability under antitrust laws because of their membership in the 568 Presidents Group, an affiliation of colleges and universities that purported to admit students on a “need-blind basis” and work together to establish common standards for determining a family’s ability to pay for higher education.

However, the case asserted that some of these universities were not considering applicants on a need-blind basis after all, but instead favoring wealthier students on their waitlists over those who needed financial aid. The complaint also alleged that certain colleges were simply limiting the number of financial-aid-eligible students they admitted in order to meet budgetary goals. The remaining universities, which “may or may not have followed a need-blind admissions policy,” still knowingly conspired with these schools as members of the 568 Presidents Group, the filing contended.

The lawsuit claimed that, over the course of nearly two decades, the colleges overcharged more than 170,000 financial aid recipients by hundreds of millions of dollars and violated federal antitrust laws, including the Sherman Antitrust Act.

The universities’ allegedly anticompetitive scheme was particularly troubling because it disproportionately impacted low- and middle-income families who relied on financial aid to be able to afford their child’s education at an elite, private college, the case argued.