I was not accepted by this university, but fellow students from much more desirable demographic groups (from an affirmative action perspective) were. They were all wealthy, quite possibly from wealthier families than my own. And they had different skin color and/or gender.
These were students who couldn't even handle AP calculus (and if you knew the name of this university, you'd be shocked), let alone match my extracurricular activities, test scores, etc.
One of them had enough self awareness and integrity to apologize to me, and openly blamed affirmative action for her being accepted instead of me.
The others let it get to their heads.
From a cosmic justice standpoint, the valedictorian is now pretty wealthy 35 years later and the ivy leaguer never worked and lived off family and spouse money.
Asian enrollment percentage at Caltech (strictly meritocratic admissions) doubled with a doubling in the absolute size of the college-age Asian population; on the other hand the percentage Asian enrollment at all the Ivies stayed approximately the same.
Assuming Asians didn't stop applying to the Ivies in direct proportion to their population increase, at best this looks like reverse disparate impact; at worst, race-based quotas or admission standards.