Federal lawsuit accuses 16 elite universities of fixing prices and courting wealthy families

Some of America's most elite colleges face a lawsuit accusing them of fixing prices, minimizing financial aid for students and inflating their cost of attendance to maintain their reputation for exclusivity.

The litigation, filed Sunday in federal court in the Northeast District of Illinois, alleges that 16 schools colluded to set financial aid packages, while some colleges are also accused of discriminating against low-income applicants. At least 170,000 alumni overpaid by "hundreds of millions of dollars," claims the suit, which was filed by five alumni of Duke, Northwestern and Vanderbilt who attended the school between 2003 and 2019. They are seeking class-action status, which would let others join the suit.

The suit names 16 defendants: Ivy League schools Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, University of Pennsylvania and Yale University, as well as California Institute of Technology, Duke University, Emory University, Georgetown University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Rice University, University of Chicago, University of Notre Dame and Vanderbilt University.