This is a solved problem in the US, but we traded it for a different problem. We don't do guaranteed admissions using a score cutoff, except in some cases at t

This is a solved problem in the US, but we traded it for a different problem. We don't do guaranteed admissions using a score cutoff, except in some cases at the state level where a specific high school achievement level guarantees admission to the state university system... or a certain achievement level in a state's community college system guarantees transfer admission into the state university system. The upside is that it puts the power to choose in the hands of the student (for better or worse -- many students & their families have no idea what they're doing. See the post from MichaelCrawford about his application experience.) and mostly eliminates the quota/population problem for schools. Most universities offer early admission here, which helps them fill a set number of spots with what they see as top students. One condition of applying early admission at a lot of schools is that you commit to attending their if they let you in. Of course, schools still offer admission to many more students than they know will attend, and I have no idea whether they do this algorithmically or using tribal knowledge gleaned from previous experiences, but I have very rarely heard stories of a school having serious difficulties because they let in too many kids. There have been a few, but the worst that happened was they had to put up some excess in off-campus apartments or hotels until attrition shrank the class to the point where campus housing became available again. There are other problems with the US method of college admissions, but I prefer our more holistic process to something as rigid as described in this post.