Students sue 32 universities for allegedly inflating tuition through early decision

A group of former students recently filed a lawsuit against 32 universities and two college admission organizations for allegedly “inflating the price of attendance” through early admissions.

The lawsuit states that while early admission boosts a student’s chance of acceptance, it requires them to withdraw other applications and “pay whatever tuition and fees the school demands of them.” 

Edward Diver, an attorney representing the students, told The College Fix the group filed the lawsuit “primarily to end the broken status-quo represented by binding Early Decision.” 

“We hope that our lawsuit puts an end to the anticompetitive practices alleged in our complaint,” he said.

The lawsuit accuses universities including Brown, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Barnard, Columbia, and Duke of “participating in practices that entrench patterns of inequality of access while inflating the price of attendance.”

It also claims the schools agreed not to compete for students admitted through early decision, which raises tuition and fees while reinforcing “a system widely acknowledged to be unfair and harmful.”

As a result, from 2002 to 2016, tuition costs rose at a faster annual rate than overall inflation, the lawsuit states. 

In addition, the lawsuit names The Consortium on Financing Higher Education and The Common Application as defendants, accusing them of sharing and coordinating information, “which contributed to artificially inflated tuition and suppressed financial aid.”

Students are seeking compensation for those who allegedly overpaid due to early admissions, and are calling for an end to these programs.

Diver, the students’ attorney, told The Fix that the early admissions “system harms students, particularly disfavors price-sensitive applicants, and allows schools to raise tuition—all because of collusive behavior that violates antitrust law.”

“Some of the defendants have indicated that they anticipate filing one or more motions to dismiss the complaint,” he told The Fix. 

A schedule for the filing and the university’s response will be set by Oct. 15, he said.

Another attorney representing the students, Peter Leckman, said in an August news release, “The defendants know Early Decision hurts the students with the fewest resources – they’ve said so themselves.” 

“We believe that transparency and competition – not secrecy and collusion – should govern college admissions,” he said. 

A third lawyer for the plaintiffs, Benjamin Brown, said early decision applicants lose “negotiation leverage,” while regular decision applicants are “left to scramble” for fewer slots at lower acceptance rates.

What’s more, Jude Robinson, a plaintiff and current student at Vassar College, said she thought she would get more financial aid for early admissions, but never got the opportunity to consider other options. 

“It does not seem fair that, in order to put my chances of admission on a level playing field with my peers, I had to give up the right to compare the cost of attendance at different schools,” Robinson said in the news release.

Duke, Brown, and John Hopkins universities, as well as the admissions organizations and the National Association for College Admission Counseling did not respond to multiple requests for comment via email.

However, Brown spokesperson Cass Cliatt told the Brown Daily Herald that the complaint has no “merit” and the school “is prepared to mount a strong defense to make this clear.”

“Brown has always made decisions about its admissions processes and financial aid independently as part of the University’s longstanding commitment to enhancing access to the benefits of a Brown education regardless of socioeconomic circumstances,” she told the student newspaper.