@austinmshauri Many countries do these kinds of tests that really test content. There are model tests like the USMLE (US), LNAT (UK), GATE(India), Gaokao(China). The last one can prove as a starting point on how we do this in the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Higher_Education_Entrance_Examination
Now I am not advocating that we blindly follow this model. We can make changes to it to fit the US, but this is a very different model from how we do college admissions here. We need to get serious with how we recruit students into our elite schools. These are precious limited resources. Using non academic criteria to fill seats is a long term disservice to our country, specially in this globalized economy.
I strongly believe that if you want to go to a super selective school, with high research output and a lot of resources, you need to be among the best in the country academically. Otherwise there are a lot of other schools that give a good education. You can choose to go there. Right now our ways of measuring academic preparation is severely flawed and based on aptitude tests like the SAT/ACT which are a joke.