On Aug. 8, Vassar was named in a class-action lawsuit, brought by three college students and a recent graduate, alleging that the College and 31 other selective colleges and universities participated in an illegal conspiracy to inflate their tuition prices. One of the named plaintiffs, Jude Robinson ’26, is a current Vassar student. Also named were the widely-used programs Common Application and Scoir, which operates Coalition Application, as well as the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE), an organization of highly-selective private higher education institutions with the stated purpose of sharing undergraduate education and financial information among its members.
The lawsuit alleges that the named institutions within COFHE agree not to recruit or admit students who have already been admitted via early decision to another member institution, thereby locking students into early decision (ED) agreements with a single school. In a press release by Philadelphia-based law firm Langer Grogan and Diver, which is co-counsel alongside the Massachusetts-based firm Cohen Milstein Sellers and Toll, partner Edward Diver said of the coordination, “It’s also a textbook antitrust violation—a horizontal agreement between competing schools not to compete.”
Furthermore, the plaintiffs argue that ED is inaccurately presented to applicants as a legally binding agreement, which allows colleges to first raise the price of tuition and fees for ED applicants, then subsequently raise tuition costs for all admitted students.
The alleged higher ED prices discourage middle and lower income students from taking advantage of the relatively higher admissions rate: The U.S. News and World Report listed Vassar’s ED admissions rate at 33 percent, compared to an overall 18.6 percent acceptance rate for the Class of 2028.
The Vassar administration contests the complaint’s basic arguments. Vice President of Communications Victoria Grantham wrote in an email to The Miscellany News, “Vassar does not share early decision lists or names with other institutions. At Vassar we meet 100% of demonstrated need regardless of whether the student is accepted in an Early or Regular Decision round.” Grantham explained that, due to ongoing litigation, she could not respond specifically to questions about whether Vassar was a member of COFHE and how the College could prevent ED from catering to wealthier students.
Vassar students who spoke to The Miscellany News for this piece described how their belief that ED was a binding agreement influenced their college application processes. Sadie Bakken-Durchslag ’28 [Disclaimer: Bakken-Durchslag is an Assistant Copy Editor for The Miscellany News] did not apply ED to any schools because, as she described, “I was scared I wouldn’t get enough financial aid and then I’d be locked into a school that I couldn’t afford.” Bakken-Durchslag recalled that the college counselors at her public high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, had discouraged students from applying ED to any colleges for that very reason.
Like Bakken-Durchslag, Ben Masur ’27 felt he could not afford to risk applying early decision and forfeiting his ability to compare multiple schools’ financial aid packages; however, it was not his only reason. “I had three schools that I was very interested in. I wasn’t totally sure between two, but Vassar was among my top choices,” Masur said. “And that did impact not applying early decision, but also, financials.”
Maya Egrie ’28 applied ED to Vassar and had a very different experience than either Bakken-Durchslag or Masur. She attended a private high school in San Francisco where applying to universities ED was the norm. “I would say the reason I did ED in the first place is because the college counselors at my high school really encouraged everyone to do it,” Egrie recalled. She had also set her heart on Vassar: “Before I ED’d, I just had to convince myself fully that this was the only place I wanted to go… I don’t think I would have ED’d if I couldn’t convince myself of that.”
While both Bakken-Durchslag and Masur felt they could not commit to a school—including Vassar—without weighing their options, they ultimately felt that Vassar gave them good financial packages. “It wasn’t the 100 percent best financial aid offer I got, because I got an almost full ride at one school,” Bakken-Durchslag explained, “but it was worth it for the education and the connections that Vassar could [bring], and…it wasn’t so obscene that we couldn’t figure it out.” Masur, who is from New Hampshire, commented, “I’m getting a very good deal to go here because Vassar meets all demonstrated needs. I think I’m paying as much to Vassar as I would if I was going to my state school… I think need-based aid does a really good job of providing equitable financial aid and allowing people to afford college.”
The lawsuit brought against Vassar and its co-defendants has far-reaching aims, including an injunction barring use of binding ED, restitution for students forced to pay more than they would have without the alleged conspiracy and reforms to future admissions and financial aid practices. “I do think in a lot of ways it makes sense to get rid of early decision,” Masur concluded. “It’s a way for the wealthy to have an advantage at getting into the top schools. And I disagree with that as a premise. I think that’s wrong.” Additionally, Bakken-Durchslag said, “I think it’s incredibly messed up that people with more wealth are able to have a better shot at getting in [to competitive schools], and also they don’t have to worry about the cost at all. But then I have to remind myself that they are the ones who are technically paying for me to be here in some way.”
Although the complaint’s litigation is ongoing, students expressed presumptive belief that certain elite schools would engage in such a conspiracy. “It definitely sounds like something these schools would do,” said Egrie. In the San Francisco private school system, she described, information sharing and non-competition agreements were well-known: “They’re gonna talk about who’s demonstrating interest where, and you’re only gonna get into this one or this one. So, I’m not surprised that colleges do the same thing.” Masur commented, “It does seem like a plausible thing.”
Quite nicely written – it answered questions that popped into my head while reading it.