<p>Out of all of my friends last year, roughly 12 applied to business EA, and 4 were admitted (including myself) and the rest were deferred. One of them was actually straight up rejected from the university. It was a little surprising because she had a 35 ACT. However, she had a GPA in the low 3’s so I guess they really didn’t like her work ethic. All 6 of my friends who applied EA for engineering got in except for one, and she got deferred. I’d say that asking for the percentage of students that get deferred probably isn’t as important as breaking down the potential students stats. I really don’t think U of I is too unpredictable with the students they defer for EA. I saw a student or two who I didn’t think would get deferred, but that’s about it. Those students ended up getting in eventually anyways. So to answer the original question, yes, every once and a while UIUC does reject EA applicants.</p>