The prospective class action filed last year against 17 schools alleged a price-fixing conspiracy in which schools restricted financial aid, causing a class of potentially more than 200,000 students to over-pay for tuition by tens of millions of dollars. The lawsuit survived an early bid by the schools to dismiss it.
The schools have long denied taking a would-be student’s financial need into account as part of the admission process.
Kennelly’s order “will allow the plaintiffs to develop the evidence to prove our case,” plaintiffs’ lawyer Bob Gilbert, on the team leading the case, said on Thursday.
Attorneys for Brown and the other five schools did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Representatives from those schools either declined to comment or did not respond to similar requests.