We can rephrase the given information by saying that each of the seven students paid $\$3.71$ and some of the students paid an extra $\$0.01$. Since $7 \times \$3.71=\$25.97$ and the pizza cost $\$26.00$ in total, then the students who paid the extra $\$0.01$ each must make up the final $\$0.03$ of the cost of the pizza. Therefore, 3 students each paid an additional $\$0.01$ and so paid $\$3.72$ in total.