Watching my wife trying to be accepted into some programs, it appears colleges get around this by giving bonus points (literally) to things that happen to be ra

Watching my wife trying to be accepted into some programs, it appears colleges get around this by giving bonus points (literally) to things that happen to be rare for the group they're penalizing. Penalizing appears to be bad, but if you flip it, so all but certain group get this positive boost, it's, apparently, ok.