Many of the deferred applicants to Michigan have posted amazing stats, extracurriculars, etc… on on the Early Action threads. Puzzled as to why some were offered admission and others were deferred. Here’s some food for thought: Checkout the 2016-17 Common Data Set which has lists the criteria of the admissions committee.
http://obp.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/pubdata/cds/cds_2016-2017_umaa.pdf “Rigor of Curriculum” and “GPA” (unweighted) are “Very Important”. (Class Rank is not considered). 79.6% of applicants had gpa above 3.75 and 16.2% had gpa between 3.5 and 3.74. Those numbers are something to keep in mind. Less important factors, but still “Important”, are Standardized Test scores, Essays, Recommendation letters and Personal Qualities/Characteristics. And then the following are merely “Considered” factors–extracurriculars, talent, work & volunteer experience, level of interest, geographic (state), and alumni/legacy. A holistic view of all these factors weighs in the admission decision. I think that a few things are in play here. Admissions is picking a well rounded diverse class, not necessarily well-rounded individual applicants. Its like putting together a puzzle. They have needs for X number of students interested in being pre-admits to Ross business, X number interested in the numerous different departments of LSA, X persons interested in Engineering, X pesons interested in the sciences (biology, chemistry, physics), etc…There are just too many qualified applicants to accept all of them. So they then look past the stats and go to the essays --3 of them, as well as the letters of recommendation, both also considered “Important”, to glean the pesonal qualities/character of the applicant, another “Important” factor as per the Common Data Set. In my opinion, the essays and recommendations are the tell-tale here, as a way to distinguish the applicants with steller gpa/rigor and standardized test scores, into possible admits verus possible defer piles. And then the “Considered” factors—the extracurriculras, work/volunteer experience, level of interest, out-of-state versus in-state status and alumni/legacy factors influence the final decision. Glad i am not an admission officer 
Seems to me that value from the family perspective, and yield from the college perspective, are the main factors in EA acceptance/deferral. High stat, in-state students and especially legacies are usually admitted and not deferred. Same goes for recruited athletes. That is not surprising when 80% choose to attend. Michigan is an unbeatable value for full pay in-state families - especially compared to $70K/yr OOS schools.
Did Michigan publish the yield from the EA round?
Bump. I would not be surprised if many of the high stat applicants who were deferred had weak or lukewarm letters of recommendation and/or less than stellar “Why Michigan”, Common App essay and the other required essay. The letters of recommendation and those 3 essays are listed as the second most important criterion in admission factors (behind academic rigor, gpa and standardized test scores–see the Common Data Set link I included in my post above, which lists all the evaluative admissions criteria in order of importance) and they serve to separate the wheat from the chafe so to speak in determining which of the applicants are the best fit for the University.