College Aid Class Settlement
Certain current and former financial aid recipients brought a proposed class action lawsuit in January 2022 against the numerous universities alleging that the universities conspired to limit the amount of financial aid received and thereby to artificially inflate prices students paid to attend.
Brown
Caltech
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Emory
Georgetown
JHU
MIT
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Rice
UChicago
UPenn
Vanderbilt
Yale
Settlements totaling $284 million from ten out of the seventeen defendants in the case will provide payments to students who received need-based financial aid to cover costs to attend those schools.
Who Is Eligible
In the Court’s Preliminary Approval Order on February 28, 2024, the Court defined the Settlement Class as follows:
Those who have during were enrolled in one or more of Defendants’ full-time undergraduate programs,
and received at least some need-based financial aid from one or more Defendants,
and whose tuition, fees, room, or board to attend one or more of Defendants’ full-time undergraduate programs was not fully covered by the combination of any types of financial aid or merit aid (not including loans) in any undergraduate year.
The Class Period is defined as follows:
For Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn, Rice, Vanderbilt, Yale—from Fall Term 2003 through February 28, 2024.
For Brown, Dartmouth, Emory—from Fall Term 2004 through February 28, 2024.
For CalTech— Fall Term 2019 through February 28, 2024.
For Johns Hopkins— Fall Term 2021 through February 28, 2024.
How Much
How much will depend on how many years you attended and other factors. I’m not seeing a number yet on the class website, but apparently it’s been estimated to be at least $2,000 per affected person.
Our Verdict
Nice big payout potential here for those eligible. We’ll update when the claim form becomes available.
Hat tip to Dansdeals