(Excerpts from Inside Higher Ed News)

• A class action suitwas filed Sunday against 16 private colleges and universities, charging them with running a “cartel” and violating antitrust laws in the way they calculate aid awards, thus forcing thousands of students to pay more than they should have to in order to enroll.
• The suit was filed by five recent graduates but seeks to be certified as a class action on behalf of thousands of additional 
• The new suit acknowledges that the colleges have received an exemption from antitrust laws but says that nine of the colleges are not in fact need blind.
• At least nine defendants for many years have ave favored wealthy applicants in the admissions process. These nine defendants have thus made admissions decisions with regard to the financial circumstances of students and their families, thereby disfavoring students who need financial aid,” the suit 
• The nine are Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn and Vanderbilt. The suit charges that they “have failed to conduct their admissions practices on a need-blind basis because all of them made admissions decisions taking into account the financial circumstances of applicants and their families, through policies and practices that favored the wealthy.
• The suit also charges that “many defendants consider applicants’ ‘financial circumstances’ through admissions preferences given to the children of wealthy past or potential donors, such that their chances of admission increase significantly.” If a college does this, the suit charges, it should admit that it is not need