In my undergraduate college, 15% of every incoming batch was reserved for the historically disadvantaged. In my class, there were six "reservation" students and 34 "regular category" students. Although the standards for admission for the reservation category were lower than that of the regular category, they were not terribly low. These six students were intelligent and hard-working souls. They might well have been honors students in a couple of colleges I know about.
But not in ours. The bar that each of us in the "regular" category had to clear was such that only 150 students of an estimated 90,000 applicants managed it. In such a competitive environment, the six students proved woefully inadequate. One of them had had a year of special coaching to prepare him for the regular courses. It didn't help.
Of the six students, only one finished in four years. Three others switched, to less demanding curricula. One student graduated in six years while another simply quit after six years. Compare that with the performance of students in the regular category. Of the 34, one shifted to a less demanding curriculum. One guy took a semester extra to graduate. One fellow lost interest and quit after six years. The other 31 all graduated in four years, with one shifting to a more demanding curriculum.
So, tally up the results of that quota system: it helped just one person, procuring for him a degree from a prestigious college. The lives and self-confidence of the other five were totally destroyed. In the absence of quotas, the six kids would have gone to a college where the other students had similar levels of preparation and intelligence. And they would have done very well.
