Why do some colleges defer applicants instead of rejecting them?

I've seen friends get deferred from their dream schools and it seems like a softer way to handle rejections. Is there a specific reason colleges choose to defer rather than outright reject? Trying to understand the admission strategies here.

The deferral process in college admissions serves a few purposes. Primarily, it gives admissions committees a bit more time to evaluate the applicant pool as a whole. By deferring an applicant, the college is basically saying, "We see potential in your application, but we want to compare you to the rest of the applications we receive in the regular decision cycle before making a final decision."

This can happen for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the college received an unusually high number of high-quality applications during the early decision or early action round and needs more time to decide among them. The college might also be waiting to see how the deferred applicant's senior year grades and activities shape up. Or they may be looking for something particular in their incoming class that hasn't been fully fleshed out yet—say, a particular interest or talent, or students from a certain geographical area or background.

Deferred applicants may also help to maintain the college's yield rate by keeping interested students in the pool as the regular decision round commences. A higher yield rate (the percentage of accepted students who actually choose to attend) can improve a college's rankings and prestige, which can be an important consideration.

In some cases, applicants might interpret a deferral as a "soft rejection," but generally, getting deferred only means your application will go through another round of consideration. You still have a chance of acceptance and it's definitely not the same as a rejection. So, while it might be disappointing to not get a straight acceptance the first time around, deferral does provide an extended opportunity to be accepted to your dream school. So hang in there!