[beeboop]

You can't really base admissions on merits when all the applicants have essentially maxed out those merits. They're all valedictorians with SAT scores that are nearly perfect.

I agree affirmative action is not ideal. Priority acceptance should be based on family income, not race. But the end result would be nearly the same as it is now.

I grew up in an upper class suburb (though not an upper class family myself) and saw tons of wealthy minority students that performed worse in school but got accepted at places their white friends weren't. They also got to do stuff like apply to scholarships for hispanic Americans when their families were of middle-eastern region ethnicity. No one was going to risk calling them out and being labeled a racist.