There are several interesting points here. First, in the article it says “So when Tulane quietly placed Colorado Academy, a private high school in Denver….” this indicates that the whistleblower was likely someone at CA. That, IMO is bad form. Additionally, with so many students from CA attending Tulane, Tulane is unlikely to want to shoot itself in the foot for no reason. So, IMO as others have said, there has to be more to the story. Maybe CA and the other 3 schools given the 1 year ED “pause” had been warned previously and this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
There used to be “stories” that AO’s at some top schools would communicate with some of the other top schools’ counselors if a student reneged without good cause on an ED acceptance, especially late in the game, and “reportedly”, in some cases, the student’s other acceptance (that they chose over the ED) was rescinded if it was discovered that the student did this and violated the ethical agreement. Now, the Common App explicitly states “that if a student is accepted under an Early Decision plan, the institution may share the student’s name and early commitment with other institutions.”
As for that other suit, its hard to accept that a student feels they “have to” ED at any of the many schools named in that lawsuit to “level the playing field.” Truth be told, they more likely want an advantage over other students b/c they can afford to apply ED. https://www.cohenmilstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Complaint-DAmico-v-Consortium-on-Financing-Higher-Education-August-8-2025.pdf
Many of those schools are known for their generous FA, and if a student “wants” to compare FA offers, they shouldn’t apply ED. It’s pretty simple. No one is holding gun to their heads to apply ED. They are doing so to increase their chance of admission. There is, IMO, a big difference between what a student/family CAN pay vs. what they WANT to pay. If a student gets an ED acceptance that they can afford (even if they don’t “want” to pay that much), then they are done. If the ED FA offer differs significantly from what they got when they ran the NPC, then they can request a review or decline the ED and stick with their other completed applications where they were hoping to get more $$. Yes college is in many cases ridiculously expensive. But if you apply ED and can afford to attend with the offer they made, then it seems distasteful to claim they (the schools, Common App, SCOIR and the Higher ed Financing Consortium/COFHE) did something wrong to “deprive” them of other opportunities. I hope that suit gets tossed in summary judgment, TBH.
To add: We have seen many schools close due to cost constraints, and there are other factors (to be better discussed in the political forum) affecting schools’ funding. If wealthy students and their families feel they should sue b/c they don’t want to pay their cost to attend, well cry me a river.