A class-action lawsuit filed Monday by two former college students accuses College Board and 40 universities, including Northwestern, of violating antitrust law with a conspiracy to increase attendance costs.
The plaintiffs, Maxwell Hansen and Eileen Chang, former students of American University and Cornell University, respectively, allege the 40 universities collaborated with College Board to require applicants seeking non-federal financial aid to provide the financial information of their noncustodial parents — many of whom do not live with their children or contribute to their tuition costs.
“Students were told there were no exceptions to the requirement — even if a divorce court order was issued concerning college expenses,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit also includes Stanford University, Yale University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Students applying for federal financial aid through FAFSA do not need to provide information on noncustodial parents, but the universities named in the lawsuit are part of about 250 private schools that require applicants for financial aid to submit a CSS Profile — which does ask for financial information of noncustodial parents — for additional non-federal aid.
The lawsuit alleges that College Board requires schools to take the income of noncustodial parents into consideration when allocating financial aid regardless of their involvement in children’s lives. It estimates that the alleged price-fixing agreement increases the net cost of attendance by $6,200 when compared with universities not participating in College Board’s agreement.
“Absent this agreement the University Defendants would have competed in offering financial aid in order to enroll their top candidates,” the lawsuit reads.
NU spokesperson Hilary Hurd Anyaso said the University does not comment on pending legislation.
Steve Berman, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said in a news release that his legal team believes that the lawsuit uncovers a “major influence” in rising higher education costs.
“Those affected — mostly college applicants from divorced homes — could never have foreseen that this alleged scheme was in place,” Berman said in the news release. “Students are left receiving less financial aid than they would in a fair market.”
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