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<p>I’m not sure about what public universities tend to do, but the UC system, in particular, has ‘holistic admissions.’ They can (and do) deny applicants for ‘not being holistic enough’ even if those applicants have great GPAs and high SAT scores. Holistic admissions are greatly a benefit to public universities because it gives them a ton of flexibility. UCLA, for example, has 39% pell grant recipients; Berkeley has 38% Virginia on the other hand only has 13%</p>
<p>Many universities have been sued for ‘discrimination’ based on their admissions policies, including private universities. Harvard and Princeton are currently being investigated by the US Department of Education for alleged discrimination among Asians; And currently UTexas is being taken to the supreme court to see if its admission policies, which are used to promote ‘diversity,’ constitute discrimination. </p>
<p>I think UCLA and Berkeley are well defended against lawsuits however. If anyone tried to sue them, they could defend themselves based on competitiveness. They’d also probably be able to defend holistic admissions as in the interest or the larger public good. (which it’s in their interest to promote as public universities.)</p>