College students get first payout in $284M financial aid price-fixing settlement

College students should soon be receiving the first batch of payments in a $284 million settlement with prestigious American universities accused of colluding to fix financial aid offerings.A 2022 federal class-action lawsuit alleged 17 elite institutions engaged in “a price-fixing cartel” that reduced financial aid packages for students, effectively overcharging them “by at least hundreds of millions of dollars.”So far, 10 of those schools have agreed to make settlement payments, including University of Chicago, Emory University, Yale University, Brown University, Columbia University, Duke University, Dartmouth College, Rice University, Northwestern University and Vanderbilt University.The other defendants included California Institute of Technology, Cornell University, Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Notre Dame and University of Pennsylvania.None of the universities have admitted to any wrongdoing.Electronic settlement payments were sent Monday to students who submitted claims.Physical checks will be mailed by Friday.Current and former students who attended any of the 17 institutions named in the lawsuit will receive average payments of $2,000.The exact payment depends on how many of the estimated 200,000 class members submitted claims in time; the net tuition cost of the university a claimant attended; and the dates of attendance.

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