If I ruled the world and unicorns pooped chocolate rainbows, here’s how I’d do it.
First, each college develops a good predictive model for which students will thrive in their degree programs. Every university is different, so every university’s model would be different; even on the same campus, every degree program is different, so every degree programs model would be different. Of course the model has to be resilient enough to account for bright students who don’t know what they want to do yet, or applicants who realize that their initial absolutely-this-or-nothing-else first choice is really a bad fit. The model would be constantly adjusted based on students’ actual performance.
I believe most colleges already do this, but I would demand one change: The basic parameters of the model would be publicly advertised.
Second, each admissions committee would determine, for each applicant, whether that applicant is likely to thrive at their college, in their desired degree program. In short, which applicants, in isolation, qualify for admission?
Third, the college would choose a random subset of students identified in step 2 to offer admission, purely by lottery, up to the capacity that the college (and/or its individual degree programs) can responsibly admit. If you are qualified, you get a lottery ticket; no more and no less. For example, if all you need to qualify is a 3.7 GPA, then a student with a 3.7 GPA would have exactly the same chance of admission as a student with a 4.0 GPA, 75 AP credits, an an Olympic gold medal, and rich alumni parents.
Worried about admitting too many weak students? Change the model in step 1.
Worried about US News ranking, or some other measure of prestige? Too bad. You asked for something fair.
Also, college should cost only 50 liters of unicorn poop per semester, and I want a pony.
