mer·i·toc·ra·cy

/ˌmerəˈtäkrəsē/ the government or the holding of power by people selected on the basis of their ability.

This is the cornerstone of the American Dream. It's that belief that what anybody does, it will result in them succeeding, as long as they have grit and want it enough. The internet is littered with content that absolutely clowns on this system, claiming that the west is failing to provide a meritocracy, but I digress.

What is our Meritocracy? What even is Merit?

Merit can be defined as someone's ability. But, that's too vague. I think there's two types of merit:

1. Kinetic Merit - This is based on what you already know and your experiences. AKA, you go to SF, people are gonna ask "Can you code?"
2. Potential Merit - This type of merit judges your potential is based on not only your skills, but also your background and experiences. AKA, you go to MIT, they gonna ask "You got what it takes?"

Both are merit-based. Both are valid interpretations. Both are fair in their own regard.

In fact, (aside from summer programs), college admissions may be the only time in your life where Potential Merit is primarily used to judge you. And, it's often aliased under Affirmative Action, but people who say that have less than 2 brain cells (cuz they're different things).

We as people often underestimate how much our environment affects us in the process of success. Where you're born, what culture you're born into, who your elders are, all of this matters, and I personally believe that this completely justifies the usage of Potential Merit on college admissions.

Why?

Let's look at hockey leagues in Canada. If you tryna play, the cutoff date is January 1st, meaning that being born in January means that you get a year more of physical maturity of someone born in December. But, that's trivial, no? How can a simple difference like that actually matter.

Simple: we exaggerate it. Our society is setup to have Kinetic Merit, so what we do, is we take the kids that perform the best at like age 6-7 and then put them in a higher league, and give em much better training. What happens? These "crackhead" kids then go onto become exponentially better, as they're being trained better, compounding over time. On the other hand, the kids that aren't exposed to this better training and encouragement as a wee kid, and were unlucky enough to be concived in January instead of born then, they're screwed. Systematically. They will most likely not make it, and how can we say it's their fault?

Like 40% of the Canadian national team or something is born in the first quarter of the year, while only 10% in last quarter. That's kinda statistically significant I think.

Wait, this sounds familiar

OH SH*T! This is EXACTLY what we do in our stupid education system. Let's say you're born in August and miss the september cutoff. You're a year behind. Cooked.

Let's say that your parents don't care nearly as much about learning (aka, first generation). Or, if you're low-income. You're honestly fried for any Kinetic Merit checkpoints, and that's literally not your fault.

Your entire life success (to an extent) is upto a 40-year-old AO reading your application, who's currently shooting a 3-pointer into the trash bin with your essay (cuz you were never taught to write well). Who knows, you could have been tough, but life doesn't reward Potential Merit, only Kinetic Merit. If you're in this situation, college admissions might be your last time to capitalize on your Potential.

Asians are good at school. Why? Their culture cares deeply about education. I don't think that they're inherently smarter (often stupider), it's just that everybody encourages academics from a young age, thus compounding.

Trivial, no?

Why don't we just like make the school start semesterly, or some teachers encourage learning more? Or be fairer and judge based on Potential? I know why. People don't understand the effects. Our intuition points to something this trivial having little effect on a kid's life. But, no, them being born in a different month or different family could very well be the differentiator between them being an IMO crackhead and a goon.

It's the butterfly effect. Chaos does indeed also apply to the Game of Life. Who woulda thought?

A cosmic ray caused a neuron to excite during a math test in 7th grade, you make it into advanced math, then get into a magnet school, then you join a club, be surrounded by tryhards, grind competitive math, then become an IMO crackhead, and then go off to MIT and live happily ever after.