Yale Breaks Tradition: Rejects More Early Applicants Than Defers in Surprising Trend Reversal

Yale is changing its approach to the early application pool by rejecting more early action applicants than it defers. Data from the past three cycles suggest that Yale previously preferred deferring early action applicants, delaying the final decision until the spring regular decision date. In the most recent early application cycle, 67% of the 7,744 applicants were rejected, 21% were deferred, and 10% were accepted. This change is motivated both by the influx in applications over the past three admissions cycles and by feedback from college counselors, who suggested offering final decisions earlier so that students have more time to make informed decisions about where to apply. Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Jeremiah Quinlan says that denying more students early action will allow for more final decisions in the early application round. Concurrently, the 67% of applicants denied in this early action round is the largest percent of early action rejections since at least 2017.

While Yale’s most recent early action cycles feature a larger portion of rejections than deferrals, the same is not necessarily true at peer institutions that also employ a single-choice early-action model. Under SCEA, students may not seek admission from any other private, domestic institution in the early round, but can apply to any schools of their choice during the regular decision cycle.

Yale’s change in approach differs from Harvard's, whose most recent round of REA data for the class of 2027 show a larger portion of deferrals, 78%, than rejections, 9.5%. Princeton and Stanford are part of a growing group of selective universities that are declining to share their admissions rates on the days that acceptance letters are sent out. Stanford began this trend in the fall of 2018, when they announced that they would no longer disclose early admissions rates beginning with the class of 2023.

This change in policy was also influenced by Yale's increase in the number of applications, which has led to new virtual outreach strategies, including online tours and information sessions. The admissions office also previously attributed its ongoing test-optional policy to the spike in applications. As more schools offer early decision II or rolling admissions, students may want to explore their options, and the earlier they receive their responses, the earlier they can explore those options.