On August 8, 2025, four students who had been accepted early decision filed a class action lawsuit against Cornell, 31 other colleges, and organizations that sponsor common admission application portals. The complaint claims that although the schools compete for students, they conspire to restrain that competition by admitting students through the early decision process. In general, students accepted early decision are offered less financial aid and are required to commit to a single school without learning what financial aid would be offered by other schools.
Three of the four plaintiffs paid the full cost of their college education and did not receive any financial aid during their four undergraduate years. The plaintiffs attended Wesleyan University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Vassar College.
The other defendants are: the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, The Common Application, Inc., and SCOIR INC., operators of the Coalition Application.
Most early decision programs have application deadlines in November. Accepted students usually must accept their offer by December. Students can only apply early decision at one school and must withdraw their applications at any other school if they are accepted at the early decision school. A number of other schools also enforce the expectation that a student accepted early decision at another school will not considered in the normal application cycle.
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At Cornell, the tuition for the next academic year is usually announced after the March Board of Trustee meeting. So, the decision to enroll as an early decision student is made without any knowledge of first year tuition levels or how those levels will compare with other universities. Additionally, the financial aid formula for the following year is not known until the late spring, after the time the student accepts the offer.
Cornell Financial Aid Overview
Cornell offers admission to early decision applicants in mid-December and expects a binding commitment by January 16. Cornell’s policy is:
“Those admitted under Early Decision who demonstrate financial aid eligibility and submit all required materials by the deadline will receive a financial aid award at the time of admission. Students may be eligible to be released from the early decision agreement if the financial aid award does not make a Cornell education affordable for applicants and their families.”
This means that Cornell selects early decision candidates on a need-blind basis, and uses the same financial aid formula for both early decision and regular admission students.
Cornell considers financial need and ability to pay when admitting international students, but international students are not eligible for Cornell early decision program.
Cornell did not release data for the Class of 2029, but here is earlier data on the breakdown of students accepted through early decision or in the spring:
| Class Year | Early Decision Accepted | Total Accepted | % of total accepted | ED Accepted Rate | Total Accepted Rate |
| 2028 | 1,661 | 5,516 | 30% | 17% | 8% |
| 2027 | 1,670 | 5,358 | 31% | 18% | 8% |
| 2026 | 1,831 | 5,168 | 35% | 19% | 7% |
So, early decision applicants have a greater chance of being accepted than those who apply in the regular process. Also, the students accepted early decision have a greater portion of legacy admissions than does the pool of students accepted in the spring.
Students that are admitted early decision play a large role in the total student population. Almost all early decision students actually enroll, while only a portion of students accepted regular decision enroll at Cornell. For the Class of 2028, 1,612 entering students were early decision and 1,639 were regular.
Lawsuit Details
The lawsuit claims that Cornell and the other defendants present the student’s decision to accept an early decision offer as a binding contract and that the only way to be released from the decision is if the financial aid package is insufficient. The lawsuit also claims that the universities share the names of the early decision students who are accepted, so that their pending regular applications at other schools can be withdrawn.
A key step in any class-action lawsuit is to have the judge approve the definition of the class represented by the named plaintiffs. Only members of the class will share in the proceeds of the litigation and unless a member of the class opt-out of the litigation, it will be bound by the lawsuit and cannot join some other lawsuit on the same topic.
The plaintiffs are proposing as a class, “all persons who have (a) enrolled in one or more of Defendant Schools’ full-time undergraduate programs and (b) directly purchased from one or more of Defendant Schools education not fully covered by grant-only financial aid and (c) were either (i) admitted through the Early Decision process and received financial aid in the form of school-provided grants for any semester in which they attended the school or (ii) admitted through any decision process and did not receive financial aid in the form of school-provided grants for any semester in which they attended the school (d) during the period beginning four years prior to the filing of this Complaint until the effects of Defendants’ continuing conduct cease.”
Potential way to break down the list:
(a) Enrolled in a full-time undergraduate program: They must have been a full-time student at one of the “Defendant Schools.”
(b) Paid for education not fully covered by grant-only financial aid: This means they paid some amount out of pocket. The cost wasn’t entirely covered by grants.
(c) Admitted through a specific process AND had a certain financial aid status: This condition has two parts, and a person only needs to meet one of them:
- (i) Early Decision AND received financial aid grants: This applies to students who were admitted early and received some form of grant from the school.
- (ii) Any decision process AND received no financial aid grants: This applies to students who were admitted through any process (early, regular, etc.) and did not receive any grants from the school for any semester they attended.
(d) Attended within a specific timeframe: They must have been a student at some point during the period starting four years before the legal complaint was filed and continuing until the issues described in the complaint are resolved.
Technically, the class might include all of Cornell’s international and early decision students.
Typically, the trial court will make a prompt decision on certifying the proposed class. The defendants will file a motion for summary judgement attacking the theory of the plaintiff’s case. If the court allows the case to go forward as a class action, settlement discussions usually follow. The plaintiffs have requested a jury trial. If after the trial, damages are awarded, they will be tripled, as allowed by the antitrust laws.
The lawsuit looks back four years and would potentially alter the early decision financial aid packages of the Class of 2025 and following classes through the end of the lawsuit at all 32 universities.
