When I was a high school senior, I got a letter that MIT sent to girls who did well on the SATs. I don't remember the wording, but the message it conveyed was something like, "You might think it's hard to get into MIT. But MIT accepts 90% of female applicants who are in the top 40% of their class." (I'm sure I'm not remembering the numbers accurately, but it was something astonishing.) MIT was telling top female applicants that it had lower standards for female applicants than for male ones.
The letter utterly failed to achieve its purpose of getting me interested in MIT. It had the opposite effect. It wasn't the only reason that MIT dropped from my favorite school to my least favorite, but it was a factor.
While it wasn't the only reason that Harvard became my top choice, one thought I (rather stupidly) did have when it was time to decide was, "If I go to MIT, some people will say that I only got in due to affirmative action. Harvard actively discriminates against women, so if I go there, everyone will know I got in based on merit. No one can say it was because I was female."
Ironically, the fact that Harvard blatantly and officially discriminated against women when I was admitted hasn't stopped people from telling me, ever since then, that I must have gotten into Harvard because of affirmative action for women. I'm grateful when people who think it also say it to me, so I at least have a chance to correct them on Harvard's history. More problematic are those who say it behind my back.