Among “high stats” applicants, some are GPA-biased while others are SAT/ACT-biased. GPA-biased applicants are more likely to do well at UCs than other colleges (even before UCs went test-blind), while SAT/ACT-biased applicants are more likely to do well at other colleges.
There are also other things that differ:
- UCs can often be much more admission competitive for certain divisions or majors, but some other colleges may not have much or any difference in admission competitiveness across majors.
- Other factors that can differ are UCs’ emphasis on factors that try to avoid overfavoring high SES applicants whose opportunities were bought with parental money (a common reason for the high SES skew at many more selective colleges), and the non-use of legacy or development preference at UCs.