<p>It is interesting to note that Havard defers almost all applicants who apply SCEA and who are not accepted early, and typically rejects early only about 500 early applicants. Yale on the other hand rejects in the SCEA round a very large percentage of applicants, and therefore defers a much smaller number. I would have to look it up, but I believe that Harvard rejected 500 early last year while Yale rejected around 2,000 applicants in the early round
This means that Harvard defers a large number of applicants that they may never intend to take, and most likely rejects early those who do not have the competitive SAT scores and grades/rigor of curriculum ect. If Yale rejects a considerably larger number of applicants in the early round, then it must be rejected candidates who appeared competitive.</p>
<p>It also may be that Princeton ED is very numbers-oriented. Here's a kid from the All USA-High School Academic Team (a very powerful group of 20 students selected by USA Today annually), who didn't make Princeton (deferred ED, rejected RD).</p>
<p>Could be that SAT score...</p>
<p>For the Class of 2009, according to various sources:</p>
<p>HARVARD had 4,214 SCEA applicants.</p>
<p>892 were admitted at the outset; 135 were rejected; 3187 were deferred - of whom 94 were later admitted from the RD pool.</p>
<p>YALE had 3,933 SCEA applicants.</p>
<p>710 were admitted at the outset; 1,312 were rejected; "47%" (or approximately 1,911) were deferred - of whom 249 were later admitted from the RD pool.</p>
<hr>
<p>For the Class of 2010, Yale admitted 724 of 4,084 SCEA applicants, while 1,961 were deferred; and Harvard admitted 800 of 3,872 SCEA applicants, while 2,828 were deferred. The number of SCEA applicants who were deferred and accepted later at each school is not yet known.</p>
<p>PS: Since both schools presumably act in their own interest, and neither, presumably, wants to be seen as "punishing" qualified students who apply SCEA, it is extremely unlikely that either rejected great numbers of early applicants who "appeared competitive." In each case, I am confident that "competitive" SCEA applicants who are not admitted early are deferred to the RD pool.</p>
<p>I would guess that you are usually correct. Interestingly, however, my father had a student this year who was rejected early from Yale and then got into Princeton and Harvard regular - and though it is just one student, it does make me question how "unqualified" Yale's many EA rejectees are. </p>
<p>In case you were wondering - yes, he did choose Harvard.</p>
<p>Goes to show you the unreliability of "anecdotal evidence", doesn't it?</p>
<p>looks like 1,230 showed up.</p>