Why is it impossible to admit STEM majors purely by merits? [implied: elite or highly selective / rejective]

[1NJParent]

@ucbalumnus

@1NJParent

The most important part of Oxbridge admissions, which I consider to be the best practice of meritocratic college admissions, isn’t the grades and test scores, but the faculty interview, where knowledgeable professors in the field are in a much better position to judge an applicant’s potential.

Is it practical for a US prestige private university with a high volume of applications? If not, the high volume must be reduced to a smaller more manageable group of finalists by some method (which brings us right back to how to determine the academic merit to determine which applicants become finalists).

There need to be some automatic filters and/or application hurdles that applicants must cross.