Payments Begin in $284 Million University Financial Aid Settlement

Electronic payments from a $284 million settlement began reaching students on July 20. The funds cover current and former attendees of Brown, University of Chicago, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Rice, and Yale. Recipients will receive an average of $2,000 each, though the exact sum depends on how many of the estimated 200,000 class members submit timely claims.

@Forbes reported that distributions are being made through ACH transfers, PayPal, Zelle, and Venmo. Claimants who requested physical checks should receive them by July 24. Any remaining funds after the initial distribution will go to charitable organizations that promote college access for disadvantaged students and families, pending court approval.

The underlying antitrust lawsuit was filed in 2022 in Illinois federal court. ” The complaint alleged that the universities used a shared “Consensus Methodology” to calculate financial aid, which plaintiffs said amounted to price fixing that inflated net attendance costs. Twelve of the 17 institutions have now settled while denying any wrongdoing.

The remaining defendants are Cornell, Georgetown, MIT, Notre Dame, and the University of Pennsylvania. The suit claimed the conduct violated Section 568 of the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994, which permits collaboration on aid formulas only when institutions do not consider financial need in admissions decisions.