they simply do not want middle-class white kids.
Or asians
It became obvious in the 1980s. That's when public schools started saying "let's prep our kids for SATs, too, so they're not excluded for low scores." My first Math SAT Prep I taught was in 1985. Scores compared to the PSAT went up an average of just over 100 points in Math, about 70 in English. It doesn't sound possible, I know. There was absolutely no information before then about test taking or identifying basic skills to be perfected, so there was a lot of room for improvement.. Even back then, it didn't get them those top-tier acceptances. But it did get a lot of them very excellent scholarships (not loans) at second tier schools.
It was (and still is) a middle class working mostly white community.
That was over 30 years ago. This has been a war against the successful and motivated white middle class the US used to have. There's a whole lot of outrage built up. Perhaps the result of this will be to say that "elite" school diplomas will be a question mark about integrity instead of a golden ticket to the future.
Foreign students pay the full freight. Having a higher foreign student enrollment somehow is correlated with the status of the institution; related to brand name. My daughter went to a school with 20% foreign students. The school went out of its way to cater to their needs. The American students not so much.