Elite Colleges Accused of Overcharging Students with Separated Parents

Dozens of elite U.S. colleges have been accused of overcharging students with divorced or separated parents in a new federal antitrust lawsuit filed on Monday.

Forty private colleges — including Harvard, Brown, Stanford, Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — allegedly conspired to keep tuition costs high for students with "noncustodial parents."

The CSS Profile, run by the College Board, is used by schools for students seeking nonfederal financial aid. As part of the application, students must disclose the financial assets of their noncustodial parents, according to USA Today.

In the lawsuit, a former Cornell student and several Boston University students argue that this requirement reduced the amount of financial aid they and others received.

"Those affected – mostly college applicants from divorced homes – could never have foreseen that this alleged scheme was in place, and students are left receiving less financial aid than they would in a fair market," Steve Berman, the lawyer representing students, told the outlet.

The College Board, however, expressed confidence in winning the lawsuit.

Other colleges named in the lawsuit include Cornell University, Northeastern University, Northwestern University, Columbia University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Tufts University, MIT, Duke University, Brandeis University and Georgetown University.

Originally published in University Herald