Financial Aid Antitrust Settlement: Eligibility, Amounts, and Timing

Twelve universities have agreed to pay roughly $319 million to resolve the financial aid antitrust settlement known as Henry v. Brown University, which accused seventeen schools of coordinating need-based aid formulas in ways that kept student costs artificially high. The claim deadline was April 3, 2025. As of March 9, 2026, plaintiffs’ lawyers have asked the court to authorize distribution of the money, and payments will go out once that order is entered.¹

Who Qualifies for a Payment

To be a class member, you must meet all four of the following during the class period for the school you attended:²

U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
Enrolled as a full-time undergraduate at one or more of the seventeen defendant universities.
Received at least some need-based financial aid from one or more of those schools.
Paid the university directly for tuition, fees, room, or board that wasn’t fully covered by financial aid or merit aid (loans don’t count as coverage).

That last one is where people get tripped up. If grants and scholarships fully covered your cost of attendance every year, you’re not in the class. The theory of the case is that coordinated formulas inflated the out-of-pocket amount, so the class is limited to students who actually paid something.

Class Period by School

The eligible enrollment window depends on which university you attended:²

Fall 2003 through February 28, 2024: University of Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn, Rice, Vanderbilt, Yale.
Fall 2004 through February 28, 2024: Brown, Dartmouth, Emory.
Fall 2019 through February 28, 2024: Caltech.
Fall 2021 through February 28, 2024: Johns Hopkins.

Who Is Excluded

International students and DACA recipients without permanent resident status don’t qualify. Neither do students who paid full tuition with no need-based aid, or those who received only merit scholarships without a need-based component.¹

One point worth knowing: you don’t have to have attended a school that settled. Every class member can recover from the settlement funds regardless of which defendant university they attended.³

How Much You Can Expect

Payments aren’t flat. The settlement uses a pro rata formula built around two things: how much you paid out of pocket and how long you were enrolled.⁴

The administrator calculates the average annual net price at your school for each year you were enrolled. Net price means tuition plus room and board minus the average non-loan financial aid at that school. Those annual figures are adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index and added together, capped at four academic years. That total is your personal score. Your payment is your score divided by the sum of everyone’s scores, multiplied by the net settlement fund.

In practice, a student who attended a higher-cost school for more years and got relatively less aid will get a bigger check than someone who spent two years at a lower-priced institution.

What Comes Out Before Checks Go Out

Attorney fees, litigation expenses, and administrative costs come off the top. For the $35.25 million Caltech and Johns Hopkins portion, plaintiffs’ counsel requested fees of up to one-third of the fund (about $11.75 million), up to $2.75 million in litigation expenses, and service awards of up to $2,500 for each of the eight class representatives.⁴ The larger $284 million fund carries its own separately determined fees.

Estimated Individual Payments

Nobody has an exact figure yet, because payments depend on how many valid claims came in and the mix of schools and years among claimants. The administrator estimated roughly 200,000 eligible class members nationwide. For the Caltech and Johns Hopkins piece alone, the projection was that if about half of the class filed and the requested fees were approved, average payments from that $35.25 million portion would land around $250.⁵

The $284 million fund from the first ten settlements will drive most of the money reaching individuals. Whether averages land in the hundreds or the low thousands depends on the net amount after deductions and the actual number of valid claims. Final figures won’t be public until the court authorizes distribution and the administrator runs the formula.

When the Money Will Arrive

On March 9, 2026, plaintiffs’ counsel filed a motion asking the court to authorize distributing each claimant’s pro rata share from the net settlement funds. Nothing can be paid out until the court enters that order. Once it does, the administrator has said it will begin issuing payments “as soon as reasonably possible.”¹

If you filed a claim, keep your mailing address and contact information current with the settlement administrator. Payments will arrive by check or electronic transfer, and a stale address is the fastest way to lose track of a check. Updates are posted at financialaidantitrustsettlement.com.

If You Missed the April 3, 2025 Deadline

The claim deadline has passed, and there’s no publicly announced process for filing late claims.¹ If the case against the five remaining universities produces additional settlements or trial verdicts, new claim windows could open. The settlement administrator’s website is the place to watch.

Which Universities Are Involved

Seventeen universities were named as defendants. Twelve have settled; five are still fighting.

Settled

The first ten settlements totaling $284 million received final court approval on July 20, 2024:¹

Vanderbilt University: $55 million
Northwestern University: $43.5 million
Dartmouth College: $33.75 million
Rice University: $33.75 million
Columbia University: $24 million
Duke University: $24 million
Brown University: $19.5 million
Emory University: $18.5 million
Yale University: $18.5 million
University of Chicago: $13.5 million

Two more followed. Caltech agreed to pay $16.75 million and Johns Hopkins agreed to pay $18.5 million, for a combined $35.25 million, both later approved by the court.⁵ All settling universities deny wrongdoing.

Still in Litigation

Cornell, Georgetown, MIT, Notre Dame, and Penn have not settled. The court denied their motion for summary judgment, so the case against them is moving toward trial.¹

What the Lawsuit Alleged

The complaint was filed under Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibits agreements that restrain trade.⁶ The plaintiffs allege that the seventeen universities used a common methodology to calculate financial need through the 568 Presidents Group, an organization formed in 1998 whose members met at least twice a year to work on need-based aid calculations. The result, according to the lawsuit, was aid packages lower than genuine competition would have produced.

Federal law permitted that kind of collaboration, but only for schools practicing truly need-blind admissions. The exemption expired on September 30, 2022.⁷ The lawsuit alleges that at least nine of the named universities gave preferential admissions treatment to wealthy applicants, meaning they weren’t truly need-blind and never qualified for the exemption in the first place, and that the remaining schools forfeited protection by coordinating with them.

Taxes on Your Payment

Settlement money from an antitrust case like this is generally taxable as ordinary income. The main IRS exclusion for legal settlements covers physical injury or physical sickness, which doesn’t apply to a financial aid overcharge.⁸ The payment replaces money you overpaid for tuition, not compensation for bodily harm.

Whether you receive a tax form depends on the amount. Starting in 2026, the reporting threshold for Form 1099-MISC rose from $600 to $2,000 per payee per calendar year. Below that, you may not get a 1099, but the income is still technically reportable. If your check arrives in 2026, plan for it on your 2026 return filed in early 2027, and talk to a tax professional if the amount is large enough to move your bill.

1
Financial Aid Antitrust Settlement. University of Chicago Settlement
2
PR Newswire. Settlement Administrator Angeion Group Announces Final Approval
3
Financial Aid Antitrust Settlement. Financial Aid Antitrust Settlement
4
Financial Aid Antitrust Settlements. FAQs
5
Financial Aid Antitrust Settlements. Caltech and Johns Hopkins Settlements
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code § 1
7
GovInfo. Need-Based Educational Aid Act of 2015
8
Internal Revenue Service. Tax Implications of Settlements and Judgments