A federal judge in Illinois has rejected a motion to dismiss a financial aid price-fixing lawsuit against 17 elite universities including Yale, Georgetown and Columbia.
U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly on Monday challenged the universities’ claim to be exempt from federal antitrust laws and rejected their claim to be exempt under a four-year statute of limitations.
In his ruling, the judge wrote that five former Duke, Northwestern and Vanderbilt students “cited specific evidence” in the lawsuit that the schools had violated their “need-blind” admission policies by quietly basing financial aid awards on students’ ability to pay tuition.