A federal judge ruled that 32 highly selective colleges (including Amherst, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Penn, Rice, Vanderbilt, and the University of Chicago) must face an antitrust lawsuit over their early decision admissions practices.
In a 28-page order (PDF File), U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley denied the schools' motion to dismiss, finding the plaintiffs plausibly alleged the colleges agreed not to compete for students admitted early decision. Their agreement could violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act.
Kelley did dismiss the claims against three non-school defendants: Common App, Scoir (which runs the Coalition App), and the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE). The plaintiffs, she wrote, never alleged those organizations actually joined the conspiracy.
Notably, the order confirms what many families don't realize: an early decision commitment "is not actually legally binding," even though students are generally told they can't back out.
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Why It Matters
The lawsuit, filed in 2025 by current and former students of Wesleyan, Vassar, and Washington University in St. Louis, alleges the schools enforce early decision commitments by sharing admit lists and refusing to pursue each other's ED admits.
That allegedly strips students of any leverage to compare and negotiate financial aid offers and inflates tuition for everyone, including regular decision applicants.
With the average cost of college still climbing faster than inflation, a ruling that ED admissions kept prices artificially high would ripple across all of higher education.
Key Ruling Details
The judge in the case is allowing it to move forward and said the following:
- Standing: Students plausibly alleged the ED scheme caused inflated tuition and reduced aid, satisfying four of six antitrust standing factors.
- Statute of limitations: Each semester of allegedly inflated tuition counts as a new injury, so even students who enrolled in 2019 can sue.
- Direct evidence: The Ivy League "Joint Statement" (under which members, including Harvard and Yale, honor ED commitments made to other schools) plus allegations that Amherst's dean confirmed sharing ED admit lists with roughly 30 colleges.
- Quick-look analysis: The alleged agreement is obvious enough that the burden shifts to the colleges to prove pro-competitive benefits.
How This Connects
This is the second major admissions antitrust fight in recent years. The 568 Group financial aid case ended with top colleges paying $284 million in settlements before winning at trial in 2025. The ED case attacks a different lever but the same underlying question of why college costs so much and whether elite schools compete on price at all.
The case moves to the discovery phase, and the plaintiffs will seek class certification for a group they estimate at tens of thousands of students who attended the 32 schools (many of which charge more than $70,000 per year) over the past four years.
Families should watch for whether schools quietly change ED agreement language or list-sharing practices before the 2026-27 application cycle.
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Editor: Colin Graves
Robert Farrington is the founder of The College Investor and is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading voices on student loan debt and saving for college. He holds an MBA from UC San Diego Rady School of Management and has spent over 15 years researching, writing, and advising on student loans, 529 plans, financial aid programs, and saving and investing for young professionals.
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