Elite colleges across the country are facing antitrust pressure from private plaintiffs who accuse them of conspiring to raise tuition and restrict financial aid. The lawsuits claim that these schools use early decision to attract and secure wealthier students, while increasing costs for more price-sensitive applicants. These cases also raise broader concerns about fairness in admissions and their impact on tuition. This increase in litigation is forcing some schools to entertain costly settlements and reevaluate their information-sharing practices. The Trump administration is amplifying the trend in its efforts to freeze funding for certain institutions. McCarter & English partner and former DOJ antitrust lawyer Robin Crauthers spoke with Bloomberg Law and said, “Universities are entering a phase where they are going to have to walk a tightrope between achieving their goals of fair access to education balanced against the administration’s challenges to the higher education model.” Robin noted that the private antitrust bar’s focus on higher education is “unorthodox,” as the goal for schools is to admit students and provide equal access to education, not maximize revenue. She added that plaintiffs have “moved that needle to say ‘no, someone’s financial aid number is competitively sensitive,” and that “The universities are not accustomed to having to be that constrained with their information.”
8.27.2025