Dartmouth, other elite universities settle financial aid suit for $166 million

The Washington Post

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel

February 25, 2024

This marks the latest round of settlements in a class-action lawsuit against 17 elite schools, including most members of the Ivy League. Eight former students in 2022 accused the schools of using a shared methodology to calculate financial need in a way that reduces institutional dollars to students from working- and middle-class families. Their attorneys say some 200,000 students have been affected by the practice in the past 20 years.

All of the schools involved in the case have denied the allegations, but many have chosen to resolve the claims to put the lawsuit behind them. Ten universities have now settled, including Columbia and Yale, for a total of $284 million. Proceeds will be used to provide cash payments to the entire class of affected undergraduate students, not just those who attended the schools that have settled.

“These new settlements will significantly increase the compensation to the class members,” said Ted Normand, a partner at Freedman Normand Friedland, which is representing the former students along with the firms Berger Montague and Gilbert Litigators & Counselors.

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