@MyOdyssey Actually, admissions officers do not see your actual Common App. They usually view it electronically and, at least at universities at which I worked, most personal information was only viewed by the clerks. I’m not certain how UM views applications, but I understood that their clerks did “redact” identifying information.
As for your suggestion that universities are practicing discrimination while denying it, that’s a serious accusation. So far the courts haven’t sustained it. Moreover, slots are rare “allocated” to diversity candidates; they certainly aren’t at Michigan. But most universities would definitely accept a student with lower test scores if they otherwise had a strong application and suffered some sort of identifiable hardship or handicap. But it is pure fiction that such candidates are substantially less qualified.
Conversely, admissions officers also aren’t stupid. They know that some candidates have SAT tutors, go to expensive “application camps” and sometimes have private admissions “coaches”. When I worked in admissions we tried to compensate for this, but I have no doubt that many such applicants were admitted and therefore benefitted from an advantage as unfair as any sort of diversity preference.
Personally, I think it is fine if students want to blame race, legacy preference, athletic ability, regional preference etc.,for their rejection. If that takes the sting out of it, fine. Sadly, this is but a reflection of American society. We’ve brought our children up to think that rejection is abnormal. They seem convinced that if they have high test scores in particular, that “entitles” them to admission. It doesn’t and never has.