After the gaokao, students do not apply to universities in the way most readers abroad would expect. There are no personal statements and, for most, no interviews. Instead, students submit an ordered list of choices (志愿), and an algorithm run by the provincial examination authority places them. The dominant method is called parallel applications (平行志愿).
The principle is usually summed up as 'score first, then follow the choices' (分数优先，遵循志愿). All candidates in a given batch and subject group are sorted by score, from the highest down. The system then takes each candidate in turn and checks their choices in the order listed. The candidate is sent to the first choice that still has room. Then it moves on to the next candidate.
This means a lower-ranked choice never 'steals' a place from a higher-ranked one on your own list, and your order of preference only matters among the institutions you could actually reach. It also means there is no advantage in putting a university first just to signal enthusiasm: the algorithm does not care.
In many reformed provinces, each choice is a combination of a specific major at a specific university, and students may list dozens of choices. In others, students list universities and then up to several majors within each. The number of choices and the exact rules vary by province and have been changing as batches are merged.
Being sent to a university (投档) is not quite the same as being admitted. Universities usually receive slightly more files than they have places, and can reject a candidate who does not meet a requirement, such as a subject combination, a health condition for certain majors, or a single-subject score. A key checkbox is whether you accept reassignment to another major at the same university (服从调剂). Declining it can lead to rejection if your listed majors are full. A rejected candidate drops out of that round and may have to rely on later rounds.
Because the sorting runs on rank, the most useful number is your provincial rank (位次), not your raw score. Students compare their rank with the lowest rank admitted to each university and major in recent years, using the provincial score-rank table (一分一段表). The common strategy is a mix of reach, target and safety choices, with several genuine safeties at the bottom.