<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>