Overview

• Plaintiffs—three current students and one recent graduate—filed the lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts naming 32 selective colleges, the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, Common App and Scoir Inc. as defendants.
• The complaint frames early-decision as a per se antitrust violation that disadvantages price-sensitive and low-income applicants by locking them into colleges without full aid comparisons.
• According to the filing, early-decision pools at the targeted institutions accept two to three times more applicants than regular decision cycles, enabling schools to raise tuition and cut both need- and merit-based aid.
• Brown University has challenged the suit’s merit and vowed a spirited defense, while the majority of defendant institutions have not issued public statements.
• The plaintiffs are seeking class certification, monetary damages and an injunction to end binding early-decision policies, with initial court proceedings and discovery expected in the coming months.