^ Conversely, it could be related to grade deflation at candidate’s school. The other thing we see is a lot of 4.0 students with ACT scores in the 22-25 range. Possibly a case of grade inflation?
My experiences with OSU have been through friends who have done very well for themselves in life. When I hear stories like this from OSU (or any other college) is that the college has probably picked up a bad case of rankingitis; most likely the USNWR strain.
I’m in the same situation. 34 ACT, fine extracurriculars, solid essay. However, my GPA is 3.1 UW, 3.4 W, and I got very low grades (some B’s, mostly C’s, and a couple D’s) junior and sophomore year. I’m assuming that’s why I got deferred. Unfortunately I’m OOS so even if I do get in I probably won’t be offered the National Buckeye Scholarship so I will be unable to attend. Oh well.
@yaygiraffes I’m curious if the reason for your discrepancy in grades/test scores is similar to mine. Was it personal problems or just a lack of motivation? If you don’t mind me asking, of course.
Also, good luck! One of my teachers refers to students like us as having “the kiss of death”
@sams1623 Lack of motivation. I mean, some personal problems along with that obviously but nothing I could tell colleges about. Also I have 9 APs and majority upper level classes. Good luck to you too!n 
Random thoughts:
I am guessing here, but I think OSU has a fairly sophisticated admissions algorithm.
My guessing is educated guessing, I have an an advanced ed/psych degree from OSU,
and am a close observer of anecdotal information of students selected and rejected. And observing
who gets in the first round, second round etc.
They have such a huge data set from all the high schools in Ohio, they can control
quite easily for grade inflation, at least in state. I believe they know which high schools are
high performing, and seem to admit more students from those high schools.
High school ranking tells you how a student performs relative to the high school peer group.
Which gives you some idea of college performance.
They also seem to be quite interested in the correlation between grades and ACT/SAT scores.
Low grades, high test scores, puts you in the reject or deferred group (later would depend on
whether you meet or fail other markers). Higher grades relative to test scores, keeps you in the running,
but you have to meet basic cut off scores.