I got deferred yesterday, alongside a half dozen other kids at my school. Would anyone know how come everyone got deferred? It must be a policy of Yale to defer people from my school, because most applicants had pretty high stats. Not sure what the rationale behind this is, though
I’m sure we all read Yale’s press release that 56% of the SCEA applicants were deferred while 29% were denied. So I’d say its pretty good odds to be deferred rather than denied yesterday. I would look at it like 1/3rd were denied but you made it past that first cut…that’s pretty good. I think when we’re talking about high stakes admission at school like HPY, etc. its not about stats. Everyone has high stats. It’s just so much more than that–passion, uniqueness, resilience, perspective, etc…and so much of that is subjective. You made it past the first hurdle-- keep expressing your interest in the school. Rooting for you @ThePizzaGuy
Because they think they might take any or all of you - as @Ohdeanor says, you’ve made the first cut - but they want to evaluate you in the context of the applicants in the RD pool, with the added information provided by your first semester grades and any significant new facts that might be set out in a letter of continuing interest.
That said, the odds are long. If you assume a 90%+ yield on the 796 SCEA admits, and close to 100% on the 87 QuestBridge admits, they’ve already admitted over half of the targeted 1,550 or so members of the Class of 2024. If this year’s applicant numbers are in line with last year’s they’ll admit 1,100 - 1,200 more out of an RD+deferred SCEA pool of >30,000. You should follow the steps described in the article referred to upthread, but also apply to a broad range of schools RD, and consider an ED2 application to a school that you’re confident, based on the best advice, is in range for you.
@DeepBlue86 Could you remind me where the article is that describes the steps?
^^ Since they added the 2 new colleges, Yale has been admitting around 2,200 per cycle.
This here, @Octagon (although I don’t know how easy it will be to get the contact info for your rep at Yale): https://insights.collegeconfidential.com/college-deferral-plan
Right, @BKSquared - maybe they’ll admit 1,300 out of the >30k likely to still be in the game. I think it may go down a bit, because they took >30 more QuestBridge kids this year. Those kids should have a yield near 100% (since they get close to a full ride and have to withdraw all other apps when admitted), as opposed to the 60%-ish yield I’m estimating Yale gets from RD admits.
The QuestBridge increase is Nondorfian in a good way: it gooses yield through what effectively is ED, but the kids don’t have to worry about losing leverage in a negotiation over fin aid because they automatically get Yale’s richest fin aid package.
Congrats everyone that got in!
it’s also possible (in a cynical way, sorry) that the high deferral helps boost Yale’s numbers TWICE, allowing the same candidates to be counted twice making both their EA % and RD % higher than would appear if they rejected more EA
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2014/01/24/early-programs-not-created-equal/
The Director of Admissions “said he worries that a rejection from Yale could signal to high-achieving students that they should not be applying to selective universities even when they are “the type of applicant whom we are trying to encourage.””
So it might be that you are applying at the correct level, but not likely for Yale.
Deferred
Deferred. Where should I send letter of continue interest? If my counselor is willing to call the admission officer, how do I know who is the AO in charge of our region?
Generally, the counselors have the information about the regional officers.
However, other people seem to say they often use the portal to provide updates &/or LOCI.
Check your Admissions Status Portal to see if you could use it to communicate or upload a LOCI.
Thank you very much!
So for Yale would selecting a double major(?) such as Electrical Engineering and Computer Science or Mathematics and Physics make it harder to be admitted or does that not make a difference theoretically?
On the Yale application, you have to include your top 3 choices of majors. There is no place to explicitly select single/double major. However, if you want, there is a place explain your choices–you can mention you intend to pursue a double-major. Personally, I think the choice of single/double majors do not matter, but your explanation of why you select those subject (or intend to double-major) would matter more.
If I were an AO, I would look for someone showing genuine interest and enthusiasms in the subjects they select; or if undecided, the reasons for being interested mainly in humanities/social sciences/STEM; or for being undecided, e.g., torn between subject A, B, and C.
Be honest and genuine. Make sure your response represents you real self and interests.
Congratulations to everyone who got in! You guys are absolutely amazing and 100% deserve this!
To those who got deferred, please DO NOT LOSE HOPE! You guys were so impressive that the AO’s decided to give you guys a second chance! Send in those LOCI, keep those grades up, and most importantly keep doing what you love because no matter what happens you guys will still become successful in the future
To those who were rejected, don’t lose hope. I already know I’ll be in this same boat during the RD round but please don’t think it’s because you weren’t good enough or impressive enough. Trust me a lot of these rejections have less to do with you and more with the school. Sometimes these decisions are just random. Either way, you worked your hardest and the fact that you even applied just shows how incredible you all are. You’re all still impressive, competitive, etc and where you end up will not only have been excited to accept you but you may be even happier there!
You. Are. Good. Enough. Don’t let this decision tell you otherwise. Keep your head up, because you guys are still going to be successful. I’m sure of it! 
What is LOCI means?
@kljwww I think LOCI stands for Letter of Continued Interest.
My daughter submitted her App RD yesterday and received a response that decision notifications will be March 26, 2020.
See y’all in March! Best of luck to everyone. For those of you who got rejected, know that there’s a place for you out there. You are all exceptional students and will thrive wherever you end up!