<p>One way to think of the shared holistic review scores is to view them like standardized tests. The applicant is scored in a standardized way; then each campus (and division and major, as applicable) sets its score threshold, which differs between them.</p>
<p>Of course, holistic review have the potential for some inconsistencies in scoring, even though the UC holistic review process is intended to be as consistent as possible (unlike at some highly selective private schools, which have different goals). For example, a document linked in the other thread indicates that UCLA readers may be grading slightly easier than UCB readers, since more applicants have better UCLA scores than UCB scores than vice-versa (although most applicants to both have the same scores from both).</p>