Colleges have hiked tuition costs for students of divorced parents

Dozens of elite universities — including Harvard, Columbia and New York University — are alleged to have conspired in a price-fixing scheme that raised the cost of tuition for students with separated or divorced parents, a federal lawsuit alleges.

The proposed class action lawsuit — filed by a Boston University student and Cornell University alum — targets the College Board, the nonprofit that developed the financial aid methodology that governs the 40 major schools also included in the complaint are mentioned, are said to use.

According to the lawsuit, the College Board conspired with the schools to create a policy that would take into account the finances and assets of non-custodial parents as justification for denying students scholarships.

Because both parents had completed the CSS profile, the schools were able to artificially increase the amount the family could afford – even if the family had only one breadwinner, it was claimed.

The CSS profile, which has become the standard for wealthy private colleges, is considered more comprehensive than the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which only considers the custodial parent’s assets when calculating financial aid.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs accused the board of trying to convince schools to adopt the policy in 2006.

“The financial burden of college cannot be overstated in today’s world, and we believe our antitrust lawyers have uncovered a major impact on the rising costs of higher education,” said Steve Berman, managing partner and co-founder of the law firm Hagens Berman. representing the plaintiffs.

“Those affected – especially college students from segregated homes – could never have anticipated that this alleged scheme was in place, and that students are receiving less financial support than they would receive in a fair market.”

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Chicago, seeks more than $5 million in damages and an injunction to stop the alleged price collusion.

One of the plaintiffs, Maxwell Hansen, said two schools he attended — BU and American University — would have offered him more financial aid if both schools had not required his father to complete the CSS profile, despite telling him was informed that his father would not do so. donate money to his education.

Another plaintiff, Eileen Chang, alleged that Cornell denied her request to disregard the assets and finances of her non-custodial parent, who had a disability income and could not contribute to her education.

Chang alleged that Cornell’s review resulted in a heavy financial burden that forced her custodial parent to take out a federal loan from Parent Plus to cover the remainder of her tuition.

“Without this agreement, the University Defendants would have competed in offering financial assistance to enroll their top candidates,” the lawsuit said.

The Executive Board said in a statement: “We are confident that we will prevail in this action.”

According to the College Board website, fewer than half of the 270 schools using the CSS profile require non-custodial parents to complete the form.

Students can request an exemption if they no longer have contact with the parent.

Cornell, BU, Northwestern, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Georgetown declined to comment or did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other defendants included the California Institute of Technology, Columbia, NYU, Stanford and Duke. They also declined to comment or did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Colleges have relied on the CSS profile because they say some families are gaming the system by providing a murky picture of their finances.

Earlier this year, Dartmouth and 16 other universities settled a class-action lawsuit accusing them of violating antitrust laws and conspiring to minimize financial aid to working- and middle-class families.

With Postal Wires