Harvard admissions should be more meritocratic.

By “merit” I don’t mean cosmic merit — moral deservingness, a judgment by the almighty at the gates of heaven. I mean the traits that enable a student to profit from an elite university education, including cognitive aptitude, conscientiousness, and a thirst for knowledge.

What’s the opposite of meritocracy? Historically, positions were distributed by hereditary privilege, family ties, patronage to cronies, or sale to the highest bidder.

These are not far from the system we have here. It’s conventional wisdom that Harvard accepts just a fraction of its students by academic merit alone. The rest are chosen by “holistic admissions,” the mystery-shrouded process that considers athletics, the arts, charity, activism, and travel — together with donations, legacy status, and until this year, race.

Developing the brainpower of younger generations is a public good with massive benefits. The problems facing humanity are hard, and there are obvious benefits to training the most brilliant and dedicated young people to work at solving them.

Harvard devotes exorbitant resources to this goal. It has an astonishing library system, laboratories at thrilling frontiers of knowledge, and a professoriate with erudition in a vast range of topics. The benefits of matching this intellectual wonderland with the students most suited to learn from it are obvious.

So why should an ability to slap a puck or play the oboe be given any weight in the selection process? To say nothing of having a grandmother who went to Radcliffe or a father who manages a hedge fund?

Instead of “holistic admissions,” I suggest using a transparent formula that is weighted toward test scores and high school grades, adjusting it by whichever other factors can be publicly justified, such as geographic and socioeconomic diversity, and allowing for human judgment in exceptional cases. (I recognize the arguments for including race, but that has been judged unconstitutional, so the issue is moot.)

Why should test scores be given the greatest weight? Because they are the fairest and most accurate predictor of success in university, as measured by grades and graduation rates.

Many studies have shown that the tests, contrary to myth, are not racially biased; they are not just an indicator of socioeconomic status; they are predictive all the way up the scale; they predict not just school performance but also life success; and they are not significantly goosed upward by test prep courses.

Moreover, the alternatives are worse. High school grades measure motivation as well as aptitude, but their value has been sinking as grades have been inflating. Personal statements and teacher recommendations are burnished by admissions-savvy experts at expensive private and suburban schools. Extracurriculars like fencing, rowing, traveling to Italy, or having your mom drive you to a church to sort clothes for the homeless, are luxuries of the rich.

In the end, our admissions policies reflect what we think Harvard should be.

Is it a finishing school for the plutocracy? A third-of-a-million dollar IQ and marshmallow test? The ultimate final club? A luxury resort that includes some classes among its recreational activities? A career expo for McKinsey and Goldman Sachs?

If so, Harvard should continue to admit legacies, preppies, elite athletes, culture vultures, conspicuous altruists, and the children of donors.

If instead Harvard is an institution dedicated to the discovery and perpetuation of knowledge, it should favor admissions that are more meritocratic: that bring in the students who are best equipped to parlay the stupendous resources of this institution into the skills that will preserve democracy, enrich our culture, and solve pressing problems.