Judge Grants Students Class Certification in Case Against USC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 12, 2025
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Judge Grants Students Class Certification in Case Against USC
Students filed the lawsuit in 2022 for a deceptive enrollment scheme used by the Rossier Graduate School of Education
Los Angeles, CA — A federal judge issued a decision Thursday that a case brought by four graduate students against the University of Southern California (USC) can proceed as a class action suit.
“Today’s ruling is a significant milestone, for the four plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit, and more than 2,000 of their classmates who were also wronged by USC’s deceptive practices,” said Student Defense Litigation Director Eric Rothschild. “This case can now move forward to address the harms to all of the graduate students who were misled. We look forward to righting these wrongs.”
The lawsuit was filed in December 2022 by former USC students represented by Student Defense and Tycko & Zavareei LLP. It alleges that USC misreported data to U.S. News and World Report in order to inflate the rankings of the USC Rossier Graduate School of Education, and entice students to enroll in the school’s online-degree programs.
The court certified the class of USC Rossier Graduate Students after the plaintiffs presented evidence that USC had reported incomplete and false data for many of the criteria U.S. News and World Report uses to determine its school rankings.
Notably, USC released its own report describing the deception in April 2022. It admits that the Rossier School of Education’s dean insisted for many years that Rossier staff withhold large amounts of data and information from U.S. News in order to improve its ranking.
“USC used its deceptive rankings scheme to lure students like Plaintiffs into paying top dollar,” said Anna Haac, a partner at Tycko & Zavareei. “We are pleased that these students—many of whom are teachers—are now one step closer to ultimately holding USC accountable for its ranking manipulation.”
The lawsuit seeks restitution as well as actual and punitive damages for students enrolled in these online programs.
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About Student Defense
The National Student Legal Defense Network (“Student Defense”) is a non-profit organization that works, through litigation and advocacy, to advance students' rights to educational opportunity and to ensure that higher education provides a launching point for economic mobility.
About Tycko & Zavareei
Tycko & Zavareei LLP (TZ) was founded with a mission to protect the public interest through significant, impactful litigation. The firm’ s practice focuses on complex litigation, with a particular emphasis on consumer and other types of class actions, as well as qui tam and False Claims Act litigation. As part of its class action practice, the firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for consumers who have been victims of corporate wrongdoing resulting in financial harm, including from junk fees, high interest loans, labeling misrepresentations, civil rights violations, product defects, breach of contract, privacy violations, and other unfair business practices.