"Not because Asians are smarter, but because of strong cultural emphasis on achievement."

I wonder what would happen if university admission were purely merit based. Financial aid could be given to students who were capable but couldn't afford to go, but no legacy admissions, no extra-curricular weighting (this also disadvantages poor people), just a "how accomplished are you academically" standard.

There are a bazillion things I don't know about education, so I know there are countless problems I'm not thinking of here. But it's always seemed odd to me that university admission is anything but merit based. University feels like far too late to be giving kids a leg-up if they need extra help academically.

Surely it would be better to focus extra resources on kids when they're younger, so that they don't arrive at university with achievement gaps and only 3-4 years to fix them.