A U.S. judge on Friday approved $284 million in settlements in a class action accusing major U.S. universities of favoring wealthy applicants for admission, short-changing students who sought financial aid. After a hearing on the fairness of the accords, Chicago-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly approved the settlements, which were reached over many months, according to an attorney representing the students who filed the lawsuit.
“We are pleased that the settlements were approved and we are eager to get money out to class members,” said Berger Montague chairman Eric Cramer, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs, after the hearing.
The proposed class action, filed in 2022, represents about 200,000 current and former college students and targets 17 prominent colleges and universities. The lawsuit alleges the schools violated U.S. antitrust law by breaching a pledge not to consider students’ finances in making admissions decisions.
So far, ten schools have settled. Eligible class members can expect to receive at least $2,000 from the settlements, according to court records. Among the defendants, Brown, Yale, and Columbia universities agreed to pay a combined $62 million to resolve claims against them. Dartmouth and Rice said they would each pay $33.75 million. Northwestern agreed to pay $43.5 million, and Vanderbilt will pay $55 million.
Litigation is continuing against universities including Cornell, Georgetown, and the University of Pennsylvania. The universities that settled have each denied any liability, as have the schools that are still named as defendants. In settling the students’ claims, the schools have said resolutions will allow them to move past the litigation and focus on their academic missions.
Plaintiffs lawyers in the case have said they are pursuing a strategy of “increasing the settlement amounts with each successive agreement to exert pressure on non-settling defendants.”
Kennelly also approved a request from the plaintiffs’ lawyers for $94 million in legal fees for spending so far more than 91,310 hours on the case, Cramer said.
The case is Henry v. Brown University, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, No. 1:22-cv-00125
