Is it possible that besides these credentials, the candidates are just duds?
I know many people with wonderful academic credentials that are throughly unimpressive in real life. The fact that a person is rejected doesn't mean they have been unfairly rejected.
They rejected specific courses.
Clever. But what you say doesn't address the question. It is not the individual that is being discriminated against, it is the curriculum. For example, I teach at a Christian school and present neo-Darwinianism as a theory/philosophy with certain problems, not necessarily religious problems.
My better students are doing well at good universities, such as UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UCLA, Rutgers, USC, and one current student being solicited by Columbia. Their academic rigor has not suffered from an open discussion of current topics from a Christian point of view.
The University of California would propose to eliminate from consideration such students, with no regard to their capability.
Now that was a nice hit.