Some of America’s most elite colleges face a lawsuit accusing them of fixing prices, minimizing financial aid for students and inflating their cost of attendance to maintain their reputation for exclusivity.

The litigation, filed Sunday in federal court in the Northeast District of Illinois, alleges that 16 schools colluded to set financial aid packages, while some colleges are also accused of discriminating against low-income applicants. At least 170,000 alumni overpaid by “hundreds of millions of dollars,” claims the suit, which was filed by five alumni of Duke, Northwestern and Vanderbilt who attended the schools between 2003 and 2019. They are seeking class-action status, which would let others join the suit.

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“No one can reasonably dispute whether universities have colluded, or whether they maintain policies favoring potential donors,” Matt Stoller, research director of the American Economic Liberties Project, an anti-monopoly group, wrote in a newsletter. He added: “Elite universities want to imagine themselves as meritocratic, though in fact they cater to the wealthy professional class and the billionaires who employ them.”