American University is among 40 colleges across the country accused of price-fixing in conspiracy with the College Board to charge children of divorced parents more tuition. AU and other prestigious universities, such as Georgetown University, George Washington University and New York University, are referred to in the complaint.
A Cornell University alum and Boston University student filed the lawsuit against the College Board and the 40 colleges involved on Oct. 7. The complaint claims that, since 2006, colleges charged families an artificially high estimate of what they could pay by requiring both parents to fill out the College Scholarship Service Profile even if only one parent was paying for college. The lawsuit claims that the agenda behind this policy was to deny students scholarships.
The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in a federal court in Illinois. The lawsuit targets the CSS Profile, a College Board form that schools use to determine financial need. It is estimated that at least 20,000 prospective students have been affected by this price-fixing since 2006.
The University chose not to comment on the ongoing lawsuit at The Eagle’s request.
The universities involved in this lawsuit are in the minority when it comes to requiring non-custodial parents to fill out the CSS profile. According to the College Board, fewer than half of the 270 colleges that use the CSS profile require non-custodial parents to fill out the form.
Maxwell Hansen, a current student at Boston University who transferred from AU, is a plaintiff in the case, according to the Washington Post. Hansen claims that he experienced similar issues at BU and AU.
He claimed that, despite indicating on the CSS profile that his father was not helping to pay for his education, AU still required his father to fill out the form.
Another plaintiff in the case, Eileen Chang, is an alum of Cornell University and stated that she asked for her non-custodial parent to be removed from the equation when deciding on her financial aid. The lawsuit claims Cornell University refused to do this and charged her family more money than they were able to afford.
New York University was named in the complaint and has claimed that the lawsuit “has no merit” and that NYU will “defend itself and its financial aid policies and procedures,” according to John Beckham, a spokesperson for NYU.
AU and some other universities involved in the lawsuit have declined to comment publicly.
This article was edited by Olivia Wood, Tyler Davis and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks, Sabine Kanter-Huchting and Ella Rousseau.
