First, the number of positions is limited, though I don't know how the limit is set or if it actually fills up.
Second, the top kids at the top high schools in the state go to the Ivy's, or other selective private colleges, even if they could get into UW. This leaves positions open at UW for a wider variety of students.
There is also a third tier system, consisting of community colleges that feed into the university system or provide shorter term job training.
Disclaimer: One kid is at the flagship college, the other is in high school.
Score = (score from exam at the school you want to go to * 2 + GPA + high school Math grade) / 4
That’s for engineering school. Every school has a different formula and holds its own exams. But the formula is public.
Sort all candidates, draw a line. When some of the selected people chose different schools, draw another line after a month.
We didn’t have an equivalent of SAT. But it can easily be plugged in a formula like this. There’s no studying to the test, since every school has a different test.
It's a system that can't be "gamed". (And, coincidentally, doesn't need to be gamed.) The idea was that it would take all the race, and the extra-curriculars, and the subjective stuff out of the system. And it did. But it also gave everyone admittance. Which is fine. Maybe everyone should get into college? I don't know?
My point is, when you have a set target, it's pretty much guaranteed that after a few years nearly everyone will be hitting that target. It's the nature of the beast.
Giving an explicit formula for scoring, along with a required score, has historically been the same as letting everyone in, because schools, over time, will always "teach to the test" so to speak.