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- NATION, Page 25American NotesEDUCATIONCracking the Ivy Cartel
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- For more than two decades the eight universities that make up
- the Ivy League, along with the Massachusetts Institute of
- Technology, have got together and matched one another's
- financial-aid offers to students. It was an attempt, they say,
- to avoid bidding wars for the most desirable prospects. But
- Attorney General Dick Thornburgh charged the schools with price
- fixing, a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
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- "This collegiate cartel [has] denied [students] the right to
- compare prices and discounts among schools," he said, "just as
- they would in shopping for any other service."
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- The schools protested that they had done nothing wrong.
- Last week, however, the Ivies -- but not M.I.T. -- signed a
- consent agreement ending their arrangement. They also canceled
- an annual "overlap meeting," at which they discussed financial
- aid for students who had been accepted by two or more schools
- in the group. Whatever its effect on future aid offers, last
- week's action was unlikely to hold down private-college tuition
- bills, which increased by an average of about 10% each year
- during the 1980s.
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