I think merit-only would be a bad idea. A kid who has managed to achieve above-average in a poor home where the TV is never off, parents offer no help, constant racket and stress, may have in college the first opportunity to take off and grow.

I will never forget going to the home of one of my partner's Vietnamese friends, Saturday night and the kids are all at the dining table studying. Dad is just there letting them work, encouraging by presence alone.

I will also never forget the kid who came in 2nd in his whole school of over a thousand on the aptitudes, expecting congratulations. Instead the parents turned away. "why were you not 1st?"