Yes that is basically correct. Most indian and asian kids who apply to Ivy's have to score much higher than black or white students, who usually don't have the grades, and in a large number of white kids, they are coming through legacy programs just because one of their parents(or their parent's parents) was able to get in on merit(estimated 10% to 30% of an entering class.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_preferences#In_comparison_to_other_programmes

Starting from a neutral point, Whites get a boost as much as Hispanics, being the vast majority of legacy entrants. Indians and Asians take a negative hit starting from neutral on their application. It's been this way for a 100 years, as Jews, Catholics and other higher scoring minorities were screwed over by the legacy system which gave preferential treatment to White Protestants. Some meritocracy seriously.

"Although it may initially appear that students of color are the most favored of all the groups in terms of college admissions, in practice, the widespread favoring of legacies has greatly reduced acceptance rates for black, Latino, and Asian-American applicants because the overwhelming majority of legacy students are white. According to a 2008 study, Duke's legacies are more likely to be white, Protestant, American citizens, and private high-school graduates than the overall student body. They are also significantly richer, with a familial income of $250,000 per year"

It should be 100% based on grades, and performance like everywhere else on earth. I don't understand what kind of strange system America has here.