The most effective approach to affirmative action in my mind is maintaining a diverse admissions boards as well as in the groups that develop admissions standards.
I do think that affirmative action as most people understand it (student quotas) has its merits because of how different the opportunists between people can be. A student in a poorer neighborhood with the same SAT score as someone from a more upscale neighbourhood may not have the same extracurricular activities available to them that would put the latter student over the edge in the admissions process.
It's never perfect and could always be honed down though. Sometimes people are denied for the most fickle reasons, like having a boring but good writing style or just not seeming like a good fit for the school's culture (another good reason why a diverse board is a good idea: it keeps schools from becoming the [x] club).
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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.
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