I mean, of course there is going to be some amount of discrimination, but it’s not what you think.
For instance, I am a first-generation college student, so my admission chances were greater. Why? It’s much easier for you to get ahead when you’re the child of a college grad (esp a legacy of an Ivy grad). In other words, for a particular application of particular quality, it’s much easier to achieve those stats as a rich kid of a Harvard grad than a poor kid from a shitty public high school with alcoholic parents.
Is that discrimination against the advantaged? Sure, but you could also view it as prioritizing the disadvantaged. If you admitted students by merit alone, Ivies would be primarily Asian and Jewish. You’ll notice those representations are already quite sizable as-is.
But moreover to the point that’ll likely get me flamed: Too many applications are the same. There are countless high-scoring, violin/piano-playing, class-president Asian valedictorians applying to these top schools. Are they are fantastic students? Absolutely. But there just aren’t enough spots, and they don’t want to admit too many of the same type of student.
You could take the admitted students for Harvard, set them aside, and re-fill your class again with students from the rejected pile who are just as qualified. At a certain point, schools want diversity… things you can’t replace or find easily.
It is a form of discrimination, but at the same time, it’s tough. Have you ever tried mock admissions? No matter who you decide to admit/reject, you always feel like crap in the end because of who you wind up rejecting for really no reason at all other than some pedantic difference or pure randomness alone.
Ivy admissions aren’t fair, but that’s life. You have to really make yourself stand out if you want a decent shot. I’m a 2400 SAT/2400 SAT2 student myself, but I had all sorts of quirks and nuances to my profile that made it easier to pop out. But perfect-score rejections at top schools aren’t uncommon. You should feel lucky to get in – not discriminated because you’re kept out. It’s just a ridiculously selective and cramped process.
I should also note that scores are allocated into categories. In other words, a student with 760’s on everything shows up before the committee with the same scaled score compared to someone who got 800’s on everything.