I actually think this would be a good way to run admissions at ultra-selective elite universities - places like Harvard or Oxford where getting in or not can make a huge impact on the entire rest of your life. Everyone knows the evaluation process is bullshit and highly dependent on luck, so why pretend otherwise? Just discard those applicants who don't meet some minimum objective standard (SAT scores or whatever) then pick the remaining names out of a hat.

It's never going to happen, but still. If people don't like it then maybe the solution is to improve the quality of other universities so that getting rejected from Harvard isn't such a big blow in the first place.

I'd have them selected randomly from those that clear the standardized testing bar. Otherwise, without selecting for academic performance, universities become a continuation of highschool where high achievers are surrounded by riffraff who don't really want to learn but rather spend a few years partying with student loans before hitting the workforce.

Thomas suggested this as an alternative to using race as a plus factor in Grutter v. Bollinger. He claimed the existence of this alternative meant that the schools use of race was not narrowly tailored even if one conceded the compelling government interest in diversity.