<p>When you get deferred, you aren't accepted nor rejected, but you have a chance at admissions in the regular pool and can possibly still get in if the college is has room to accept more students.</p>
<p>However, does "deferred" mean "You are not Yale material but you have good stats, so we'll give you a chance?"</p>
<p>Does it mean "You have great potential but we will see how much you accomplish in the next few months and we'll check back on you?"</p>
<p>Does it mean "You are a great applicant but there were just better applicants...but you're out second pick?"</p>
<p>What exactly does any college defer an applicant? Is it an occupancy issue? ..or what?</p>
<p>More of the second one, the “You have great potential but we will see how much you accomplish in the next few months and we’ll check back on you?”</p>
<p>Basically they want to see you in context of the regular applicant pool instead of the early pool before they make a final decision!</p>
<p>definitely the second one. a few of my friends got deferred from Yale EA this past year. they’re at HYP now (yes, a few of the did get in after deferment!).</p>
<p>IMHO, here’s what it means: “In an optimal world where we have lots of slots, we’d love to admit someone with your qualities. You’d be a great addition to Yale. However, as strong as you are and the reality of only 1800 admits, we have to wait on a final decision until we can compare you with the top candidates from the RD round. Experience shows that a good handful emerge from there and they deserve proper consideration. Please bear with us and thank you for considering Yale.”</p>
<p>It means different things fo rdifferent applicants. From what I’ve seen applying to other schools, Yale does defer significantly more people than Stanford for exammple. So it is less likely to be accepted from yale after being deferred than in a school which outright rejects more students.</p>