Yes but the other girl gets dealt a shit hand and still plays it well. The two girls are equally meritorious yet only one will get admitted.
>If we don't focus the cause of that difference
... I am focusing on the cause of that difference. I think the opposite here, that it is you who is failing to consider the cause of that difference.
>I completely agree but you were advocating for Harvard to try and correct for that difference which I do not think they should do because it requires treating someone different because of their race.
Yes, Harvard should correct for that difference because it is unfair to hold someone accountable for a culture they did not choose.
>Example 2: Person A goes to an elite private high school and gets a 4.0. Person B goes to a very poorly ranked public high school and gets a 4.0. It is almost guaranteed that person A learned more. Thus as an college administrator if you only have one acceptance letter to send and want to decide on personal ability, person A gets the letter.
>In my understanding, both example are a merit-based system. In example 2, person B had the deck stacked against them from the start. When we measure personal ability person A has a greater ability and thus more merit. Yet, I feel like you will disagree about this being merit-based.
>Would you be willing to explain why you think the quality of school is irrelevant to merit? It would really help my understanding if you were able to put a working definition to your concept of merit.
To me merit is something that comes from within, not from without. So take a feudal example. It's best to have a king who understands the duties of being a king. Most people in a kingdom will grow up with no real understanding of what is it to be a king. The king's firstborn son however, grows up in an entirely different culture. He will be cultivated from birth and given every advantage in order to turn him into the best king possible. Does that make bloodline aristocracy a merit-based system? After all, at the time of the king's death it is obvious that his son has received the best preparation.
Now, I think if you're a normal person something about that will bother you, it doesn't quite seem like merit. It seems like inherited privilege which has been converted into knowledge, but that knowledge isn't itself merit. I feel the same way about our current system. It is based on inherited privilege which takes place in the realm of knowledge and test scores but it doesn't really strike me as being 'merit.'