Lawsuit Against Elite Schools By: Nathalie Espinoza

English:

Whether it’s for their academic rigor or their prestigious campuses, everyone knows big names like Northwestern, Duke, Yale, and MIT. However, not everyone knows the way these schools choose who will have the pleasure of attending their school in the upcoming years. A lot of schools like Brown, Cornell, Harvard, and even Princeton review their applications in a “need-blind” way towards financial aid, meaning that they don’t consider how much the student will contribute to the school if they’re admitted; they’re admitted based on their academic merits and other traits. Nevertheless, Northwestern, Yale, Duke, MIT, and Notre Dame have been sued for doing the exact opposite. As part of a group of top universities, the schools are allowed to share information with each other about students, as long as they keep their “need-based” financial aid policy. But they didn’t. Instead, they decided to consider if prospective students can pay the full tuition, and/or if their parents are rich enough to make big donations. Since this was against the rules, and this lowered financial aid for students who cannot afford to go to these top institutions without help, people took action. The lawsuit asks that more than 170,000 students who attended these schools receive a payout. Northwestern and Notre Dame have declined requests for comments.  

Characters:

因为西北大学、杜克大学、耶鲁大学和麻省理工学院等大牌不但严,但是也特别悬河,所以比较多的人知道这些大学。虽然他们知道这些大学特别有名的名字,但是,并不是每个人都知道这些学校如何选择在未来几年有幸上学的人。除了布朗大学以外,学校,康奈尔大学、哈佛大学,和普林斯顿大学也以“盲目”的方式审查他们的申请以获得经济援助,这意味着他们不考虑学生被录取后将为学校做出多少贡献;他们是根据他们的学术成绩和其他特征被录取的。可是,西北大学、耶鲁大学、杜克大学、麻省理工学院和圣母大学却因为反其道而被起诉。因为是顶尖大学的一部分,所以只要学校保持“基于需求”的经济援助政策,学校就可以相互分享学生信息。但他,们没有。相反,他们考虑如果学生是否就可以支付全额学费。他们也考虑如果他们的父母是否足够富有,就可以进行大笔捐款。因为这违反了规定,并且这降低了对无法在没有帮助的情况下进入这些顶尖机构的学生的经济援助,所以人们采取了行动。该诉讼要求超过 十七万 名在这些学校就读的学生获得报酬。西北大学和圣母大学拒绝了评论请求。

Pīnyīn:

Yīnwèi xīběi dàxué, dù kè dàxué, yélǔ dàxué hé má shěng lǐgōng xuéyuàn děng dàpái bùdàn yán, dànshì yě tèbié xuán hé, suǒyǐ bǐjiào duō de rén zhīdào zhèxiē dàxué. Suīrán tāmen zhīdào zhèxiē dàxué tèbié yǒumíng de míngzì, dànshì, bìng bùshì měi gèrén dōu zhīdào zhèxiē xuéxiào rúhé xuǎnzé zài wèilái jǐ nián yǒuxìng shàngxué de rén. Chúle bùlǎng dàxué yǐwài, xuéxiào, kāng nài ěr dàxué, hāfó dàxué, hé pǔlínsīdùn dàxué yě yǐ “mángmù” de fāngshì shěnchá tāmen de shēnqǐng yǐ huòdé jīngjì yuánzhù, zhè yìwèizhe tāmen bù kǎolǜ xuéshēng bèi lùqǔ hòu jiāng wéi xuéxiào zuò chū duōshǎo gòngxiàn; tāmen shì gēnjù tāmen de xuéshù chéngjī hé qítā tèzhēng bèi lùqǔ de. Kěshì, xīběi dàxué, yélǔ dàxué, dù kè dàxué, má shěng lǐgōng xuéyuàn hé shèngmǔ dàxué què yīnwèi fǎn qí dào ér bèi qǐsù. Yīn wéi shì dǐngjiān dàxué de yībùfèn, suǒyǐ zhǐyào xuéxiào bǎochí “jīyú xūqiú” de jīngjì yuánzhù zhèngcè, xuéxiào jiù kěyǐ xiānghù fēnxiǎng xuéshēng xìnxī. Dàn tā,men méiyǒu. Xiāngfǎn, tāmen kǎolǜ rúguǒ xuéshēng shìfǒu jiù kěyǐ zhīfù quán é xuéfèi. Tāmen yě kǎolǜ rúguǒ tāmen de fùmǔ shìfǒu zúgòu fùyǒu, jiù kěyǐ jìnxíng dà bǐ juānkuǎn. Yīnwèi zhè wéifǎnle guīdìng, bìngqiě zhè jiàngdīle duì wúfǎ zài méiyǒu bāngzhù de qíngkuàng xià jìnrù zhèxiē dǐngjiān jīgòu de xuéshēng de jīngjì yuánzhù, suǒyǐ rénmen cǎiqǔle xíngdòng. Gāi sùsòng yāoqiú chāoguò shíqī wàn míng zài zhèxiē xuéxiào jiùdú de xuéshēng huòdé bàochóu. Xīběi dàxué hé shèngmǔ dàxué jùjuéle pínglùn qǐngqiú.

Edited by Mia Lapiere

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