@gibby, I read many times your reference to, "“We accept the best-of-the-best in the early round.” I’ve always wondered, yes - but what does that mean in terms of hard statistical numbers. Sounds from you, that means “the top 1% of all graduates from [a] HS class and [with] top test scores”.
@Senior2016M, I think you are defining meritocracy as test scores. If so, then Asians would probably be much higher than 20%. However, there are other ways to define meritocracy. Maybe merit for the ivies should be defined as “those who have volunteered the most hours in their community”, maybe defined as “those who have achieved high GPAs with English as a second language”, maybe defined as “those who have achieved high GPAs while working a job during high school”. There are many ways to look at merit. Merit simply means those deserving praise or rewards.
@collegedad13, It does seem to me that whites are the most under-represented racial group at the ivies. Whites are about 64% of the population and only 42ish% at the ivies. The fact is, the racial makeup of the ivies does not reflect the racial makeup of the country. Personally, I think college applications should omit racial identification. Applications are still read holistically so as to consider grades, scores, ECs, recs, etc. Just no racial identification. Is the goal a racially blind society or not?