This is such a great question.
I graduated from Scripps College in 1971. I had gone to an all girls elementary/high school and continuing on to an all women's college seemed perfectly natural. Being raised in this educational environment, I assumed (as did my peers) that being the smartest person in the room was perfectly okay. It was merit, not gender, based.
Obviously, as I got older AND became a public school teacher in greater Los Angeles,
I quickly realized how privileged I had been in my educational experience and how wrong I was about educational meritocracy being the norm.
Now, being 72, I see that all of the methods mentioned above are powerful and the success of one over the other would be judged using different rubrics through the decades.
Frankly, I do not know what I would have done as an 18-year-old, growing up in that era. I know now, however, that the struggle for academic and social equity continues
and the 18-year-olds and advocates/administrators of 2021 are a lot more savvy, prepared, and united than anything we could have imagined 50 years ago.