The lawsuit seeks monetary damages for “overcharging” and to ban binding ED.
“overcharging”? Isn’t the ED exactly the same as the RD fee?
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I don’t quite understand their legal argument; no one is forcing them to apply ED. The whole thing appears to be an attempt to cast suspicion on the COFHE affiliation shared by all the defendants. Here’s their website:
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Why only “top” colleges. Others also have ED.
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I think what they’re alleging is that these colleges are restricting students’ ability to compare financial aid offers across schools, which leads to higher costs for those students.
I agree it’s a weak argument, because students can get a fairly accurate idea of costs through the NPC. And, as @circuitrider noted, no one is forcing students to apply ED.
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To make it news worthy. If there were suing Tweedledum College, no one would pick up the story and we wouldn’t be discussing it here on CC. 
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We see parents / students posting all the time about choosing ED. Yesterday was Bentley and UConn.
Well if you choose ED, why should either consider giving you money?
They might but if you’re a business person, why would you ?
Yes anyone can ED and many qualify for need aid, but I’d surmise that the bulk of ED is utilized by the wealthy and that is who these schools want.
The amount of full pay at some of these top universities is staggering.
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At need blind colleges, they don’t know how much need an applicant has when they make their admission decision.
But yes, ED applicants tend to be wealthier and therefore more likely to be full/near-full pay as they’re giving up the ability to compare offers, including merit scholarships that they may receive from other schools.
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Was referencing merit - which many schools offer. Not Ivy, of course, but many.
Some like St Olaf handle this with a ‘minimum’ scholarship if accepted ED. But could you have gotten more ?
Others, like, Whitman, offer a pre read.
But perhaps those are because they are not first tier schools, and they are looking to find that sweet spot on the demand / revenue curve.
ED is voluntary so not sure where the merit of the case is. But obviously some attorney sees it.
Amazing, these kids dreamed of attending these schools - and now are upset about after they took advantage.
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Often students can only get an estimate of need based aid from the NPC. Most of the COFHE schools don’t give merit, but for the ones that do it would be interesting to see if they give more or less merit to ED students. My sense is probably less.(I don’t know if the COFHE schools that give merit include that estimate in their NPCs.) Some non-COFHE schools directly say ED applicants receive less merit.
Separately, it does seem like a dicey lawsuit as no one really has to apply ED (besides some committed athletes, who often can get a financial aid pre-read.) The article states as that the ED acceptance rate is higher than than RD, which on its face is true. But we all know after one removes hooked applicants that might not be true…if this lawsuit gets us that level of detail, that would be exciting!
I wonder what, and who, is really driving this lawsuit? I wonder if the 568 Presidents group lawsuit was a reason for this filing?
Seems like lumping all the COFHE schools together might not make sense. Not all have ED. Most only have need based aid. And said need based aid is equal across ED and RD with the exception of QB matched finalists who get full COA (no matter their actual need, which is most commonly full need. But their packages wouldn’t include loans, or self help, or work study, like other packages might.) So in this case ED aid packages would be greater on average than RD because of the QB group in ED.
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My guess - students not achieving financial success after college (which finances are often tied to perceived career success).
No matter what anyone wants to say - I didn’t send my kid to college to get a good job or to make money but rather to learn, etc. as some posters here have stated -
I have no doubt if you took a poll of parents, especially those sending their kids to these schools, it’s all about a job, grad school chances, and/or their future financial success.
To think otherwise would be ignorant.
There’s a reason these schools provide outcome statistics. Some like to dismiss them, but they are real and they are often driving decisions.
Maybe but that just seems like such a stretch. Why sue the COFHE schools? Why not sue all ED schools? Or one’s own school? We will find out soon enough if this group has standing to sue the COFHE schools.
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This article (4 articles per month with free registration) reports that the COFHE schools share names of ED students and share financial aid info.
The lawsuit names some of the nation’s most prominent institutions, including Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Vanderbilt University, and Williams College. It also names the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, or COFHE, a group of highly selective private colleges that share data on admissions, financial aid, and costs; the Common Application, Inc., which operates the widely used admissions platform; and Scoir, Inc., which runs a shared admissions platform called the Coalition App.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/antitrust-lawsuit-challenges-early-decision-programs
Sharing details about financial aid and the schools’ FA formulas is what led to the demise of the 568 Presidents Group, the lawsuit, and the large settlements. There’s many sources of info, but here are a few:
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Wesleyan is the only school association identified in the article on the plaintiff’s side of the lawsuit, although the article states there are two others.
So, this is likely to boil down to whether the schools are entitled to enforce their ED agreements (primarily by sharing names with each other) or will instead have to rely on an “honor system” dependent on the students telling them the truth 
What could possibly go wrong!?
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Criticizing ED and thinking there is merit in a lawsuit against it are not the same thing.
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I imagine an attorney sees merit - or they would not have taken the case.
It’s more than the honor system because the HS counselor (and parents) sign the ED agreement in addition to the student. So, counselors do tend to take that seriously. But in the end, there are no ED police. And that’s a direct result of DOJ’s anti-trust investigation into NACAC around 2018/19, which forced some of NACAC’s rules to be deemed unenforceable because they restricted competition.
NACAC underwent an investigation by the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which led to a moratorium on the enforcement of the Code of Ethics and Professional Practices (CEPP), the removal of three provisions of the code, the assessment of a staggering amount of legal fees, and, finally, the filing by DOJ of a complaint and proposed consent decree.
My skeptical view is that some attorney saw the big settlements with the 568 President’s lawsuit and thought this COFHE group and their practices was analogous enough to pursue.
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The full 33 page class action complaint is at https://www.cohenmilstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Complaint-DAmico-v-Consortium-on-Financing-Higher-Education-August-8-2025.pdf . It answers many of the questions listed in this thread.
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One is an RD current student at WUSTL. Interesting. Full pay.
I mean, he knew the price before enrolling. I don’t like what Flemings charges for a steak. But the price is on the menu and I see it b4 ordering.
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