You hit upon an important issue under education. Misunderstood or not, that's a good thing. It's important that we don't shove people into little boxes for acceptable behaviors or lifestyles any more than the wider cultures already do. That's why making any kind of blanket statement on any group can be detrimental.

Well, first understand that there is no real centralized authority operating the university systems in America. The private universities do whatever won't piss off those who contributed to their endowment or the parents of students, and the state universities answer to the states, not the federal government. The primary goal of any university in America, public or private, is to look better than the next university. One way to do this is to accept the best students who are willing to attend your university, regardless of where they come from. Of course, they still need to accept a certain number of in-state students in most cases.