Lawsuit reveals how colleges really talk about rich applicants

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A lawsuit alleging universities colluded to determine students’ financial-aid packages provides a glimpse into the ways top schools assess children of privilege differently from the rest of the applicant pool.

At Georgetown University, a former president selected students for a special admission list by consulting their parents’ donation history, not their transcript, according to the suit. At Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a board member got the school to admit two applicants who were children of a wealthy former business colleague, the suit alleges. And at Notre Dame, an enrollment official in charge of a special applicant list wrote to others, "Sure hope the wealthy next year raise a few more smart kids!," according to the suit.

The motion, filed Tuesday in Illinois federal court, is the latest salvo in a lawsuit that began in January 2022. The plaintiffs, former students, initially accused more than a dozen elite universities with price fixing. Twelve schools have since settled. The motion on Tuesday seeks class-action status for the case against the remaining five schools: MIT, Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown and Cornell University.

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The University of Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Indiana. (iStock / iStock)

For families embroiled in the college-application process and facing ever steeper odds to win entry to elite schools, the records feed suspicions that colleges have different standards for children of means.

At Notre Dame, the university’s Institutional Risk and Compliance Committee said the admission of so many children of major donors represented a major risk to the institution’s brand should it become public, according to the motion. In 2020, the school admitted 86 applicants who were connected to large donors, or about 4% of the incoming class. Within that group, 76% of those donor admissions needed special consideration to get in, the motion said.

Speaking about the class of 2016, Donald Bishop, then the associate vice president for undergraduate enrollment, noted a decline of 30 top academic students at the same time the donor list was used.

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"We allowed their high gifting or potential gifting to influence our choices more this year than last year," Bishop said in a 2012 email provided in the lawsuit.

Spokespeople for Georgetown, Notre Dame and MIT said that the schools plan to fight the suit in court and that their students all earned their places. A Notre Dame spokesman said the school is confident "every student admitted to Notre Dame is fully qualified and ready to succeed."

The campus of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. (Win McNamee/Getty Images / Getty Images)

It is a precarious time for elite universities, which have become the targets of growing public frustration. President-elect Trump has threatened to investigate internal university operations and tax the endowments of elite schools.

Some of the anger directed at the nation’s most prestigious schools comes from perceived hypocrisy.

Elite universities often present themselves as meritocracies that admit the best and brightest. The motion filed Tuesday, which draws from years of speeches at exclusive gatherings, depositions and internal university reports, shows officials bowing to financial pressures to admit wealthy students over potentially more qualified candidates.

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Discovery in a separate court case about race-based preferences in college admissions revealed Harvard University had a "Z list," a route through which weaker, but wealthy or connected, applicants could gain admission.

A view of the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Over the past few years, several schools, including Amherst College, have gotten rid of legacy admission. Additionally, several states, including California, have banned the practice.

Inside the suit

Tuesday’s filing seeks class-action certification and asks for $685 million in damages. If awarded, that figure would triple to more than $2 billion under U.S. antitrust laws. Ten schools, including Dartmouth College, Northwestern University and Rice University, have settled for a total of $284 million, and two more have settled for amounts that haven’t been disclosed.

The campus of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

The lawsuit also includes testimony from Sara Harberson, Penn’s associate dean of admission from 1999 to 2008, who was deposed for the case in October 2023. She said that the school had a "bona fide special interest" tag for students from families who were big donors or knew someone on the board of trustees.

Those students were assured of admission.

If the school was over-enrolled, they were protected, regardless of their academic record. "You had absolutely no power as an admissions officer," Harberson said in her deposition.

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A spokesman for Penn said it sees no merit in the lawsuit.

"The actual evidence in the case makes clear that Penn does not favor in admissions students whose families have made or pledged donations to Penn, whatever the amount," said the spokesman.

At Georgetown, a former president selected students for an annual president’s list after reviewing information about the parents’ donation history and capacity, but without reviewing the applicant’s transcript, teacher recommendations or personal essays. Atop the list he often wrote "Please Admit," according to the motion.