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Columbia University false data class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: Alexandra Koenigsberg, Maxwell Koenigsberg and Olga Stambler filed a class action lawsuit against The Board of Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York.
- Why: The plaintiffs claim Columbia and its board of trustees reported false data about the university to get a higher ranking in the U.S. News & World Report.
- Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in New York federal court.
Columbia University submitted false data to services that rank colleges and universities, resulting in the school being ranked higher than it should have been for 10 years in U.S. News & World Report, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
Plaintiffs Alexandra Koenigsberg, Maxwell Koenigsberg and Olga Stambler claim Columbia, along with its board of trustees, duped tens of thousands of undergraduates into thinking they were applying for a top-five school.
The plaintiffs argue Columbia was “bouncing” between the top 10 and lower teens in the rankings in the 1990s, before alleged false data reporting helped it rise to as high as second in the 2010s and 2020s.
“This rise was due to the reporting of false or misleading data, though, and not to educational or student life improvements,” the Columbia class action states.
The plaintiffs want to represent a nationwide class of individuals who applied for undergraduate admission to Columbia, paid an application fee and were denied admission since 2011.
Columbia falsely reported data about faculty, class sizes, other things, class action says
Since around 2010, Columbia has been falsely reporting data about its class sizes, the percentage of full-time faculty with a doctorate or terminal degree, its percentage of full-time faculty and its student-faculty ratio, among other things, the Columbia class action alleges.
“Had Columbia reported its actual data to U.S. News, it would not have ranked in the top 5 or even top 10 U.S. national universities,” the Columbia class action states.
The plaintiffs claim Columbia and its board of trustees are in violation of New York General Business Law.
They are demanding a jury trial and requesting an award of all available monetary or equitable relief for themselves and all class members.
A similar class action lawsuit was filed against the University of Southern California in December by a trio of current and former students claiming the school for years submitted false data about its Rossier School of Education to U.S. News & World Report.
Did college rankings factor into your undergrad application decisions? Let us know in the comments.
The plaintiffs are represented by Kim E. Miller of Kahn Swick & Foti LLC and Matthew T. Heffner and Matthew T. Hurst of Heffner Hurst.
The Columbia University false data class action lawsuit is Koenigsberg, et al. v. The Board of Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, Case No. 1:23-cv-01044, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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