Columbia To Pay $9 Million To Settle Lawsuit Over US News College Ranking Data

Columbia University has agreed to pay $9 million to settle a proposed class-action lawsuit filed by a former student who claimed the school submitted inaccurate data to U.S. News & World Report, artificially inflating its position in the publication's annual ranking of American universities. The lawsuit alleged that Columbia misreported data, including class sizes and faculty numbers, to boost its ranking from 18th place in 1988 to 2nd place in 2022. The settlement covers around 22,000 undergraduate students who were enrolled from 2016 to 2022. Columbia University denied any wrongdoing as part of the agreement, stating that it is entering into the settlement to "avoid protracted and costly litigation." The university has since adopted new steps to improve the quality and accuracy of information available to prospective students. A professor's analysis found that Columbia's reported data was inaccurate, including the percentage of undergraduate classes with fewer than 20 students and the percentage of full-time faculty. The lawsuit claimed that students paid "premiums for tuition, fees and costs" based on Columbia's inflated ranking. Columbia University has since stopped submitting data to the U.S. News rankings, citing concerns over the role of rankings in the undergraduate application process. The university has published Common Data Sets for all three undergraduate schools, which are reviewed by an independent advisory firm to ensure reporting accuracy.