I went to UW and wanted to major in computer science. At that time (1997), they accepted 80 students per year into the program.
80.
Guess how many students applied to the program every year? More than 1500. The supply was/is so constrained they do not consider anybody with less than a 3.9 GPA.
Even today, as per the slide deck, These schools accept 400, 800 students. How many do you think are applying?