Yale, MIT Sued for Colluding to Limit Financial Aid Packages (1)

More than a dozen top U.S. colleges including <-bsp-bb-link state="{"bbHref":"bbg://securities/6047Z%20US%20Equity","_id":"0000017e-4ada-d767-affe-cafada6d0000","_type":"0000016b-944a-dc2b-ab6b-d57ba1cc0000"}">Yale, <-bsp-bb-link state="{"bbHref":"bbg://securities/321034Z%20US%20Equity","_id":"0000017e-4ada-d767-affe-cafada6d0001","_type":"0000016b-944a-dc2b-ab6b-d57ba1cc0000"}">Columbia and <-bsp-bb-link state="{"bbHref":"bbg://securities/24608Z%20US%20Equity","_id":"0000017e-4ada-d767-affe-cafada6d0002","_type":"0000016b-944a-dc2b-ab6b-d57ba1cc0000"}">MIT were sued for allegedly conspiring to manipulate the admissions system to hold down financial aid for students and benefit wealthy applicants.

The proposed antitrust class action lawsuit, filed Sunday in federal court in Chicago, accuses the university “cartel” of a long-running scheme to collectively adopt “a common formula for determining an applicant’s ability to pay” tuition, rather than competing freely over financial aid by trying to attract students through more generous aid offers.

At the same time, more than half of the schools have given preferential treatment ...