August 8, 2025
A federal lawsuit accuses 32 elite universities of violating antitrust laws by using early decision admissions to inflate prices and reduce competition.
A controversial college admissions practice is facing legal scrutiny, as current and former students of elite universities accuse their schools of conspiring to inflate prices through the use of early decision.
Early decision admissions policies allow students to apply ahead of the regular admissions deadline, giving them a better chance of acceptance. Students pledge to attend if a college offers a seat, but the acceptance decision often comes before students know how much financial aid the school will provide. Binding early-decision plans prevent students from receiving and comparing offers from other schools.
That setup, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Massachusetts, puts students at a disadvantage and lets colleges keep prices high. The lawsuit argues that schools are not incentivized to provide generous financial aid to early decision applicants because they know no other school can compete by topping their offer. Those policies create and maintain a conspiracy between schools that reduces price competition and violates antitrust law, the complaint says.
The case strikes at the heart of a practice that experts say exacerbates wealth inequality in higher education. Early decision gives an advantage to affluent students who can commit to enroll without fear of cost, at a time when the average sticker price for private schools is nearly $63,000. The process can allow colleges to secure tuition revenue early on and lock in students who can afford to pay more out of pocket.
“This is not an equitable system,” said Benjamin D. Brown, an attorney at Cohen Milstein Sellers and Toll, which is representing the four students alongside the law firm Langer Grogan and Diver. “There’s a lot of scrutiny on college admissions right now, and people want to make them as fair as possible.”
Read Elite Colleges Conspire to Use Early Admissions to Inflate Costs, Lawsuit Says.