Yesterday, I submitted deposits to both the Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin Madison. However, I wanted to take a gap year so that I could travel and visit and acclimatize myself with the American culture (I am a US citizen but have lived abroad since my birth). Most of all, I want to take a break from studies. Now, I have asked both the universities and they have said that deferral is possible for one year, and have asked me to submit a deferral request as soon as possible.
Now, suppose that deferral is granted from both and I pass this whole year and then have to make a decision to choose one of them. Should I inform X or Y as soon as possible (when the time comes) that I wont be joining them? Any relevant comments and answers would be appreciated.
No, you basically have to pick one, just as you have to pick one to put a deposit on if you were attending in the fall.
Pick one for now and withdraw the deposit from the other. In the future, if you didn’t want the college you committed to you could reapply.
Why on earth did you deposit at both of these places? You should have chosen one. So, if you are serious about deferring, do that right now. Pick one. Defer there. Let the other place know that your plans have changed, and that you won’t be attending.
Or drop both. You can start the application again during your gap year. Chances are that once you are in the US and are working and getting used to life here, your application list will change based on your experiences after arriving.
As I had quoted in my earlier posting, which somehow seems to have been lost, many high schools have implemented a policy to submit the final High School Transcript to one College/University only, the one the student announces as his/her final, selected choice. The reason is simple: to prevent double deposits and, thus, making two (or more) schools believe that the student will be attending come fall.
There is a timing issue that makes it morally acceptable for the OP to place deposits at two colleges. If his enrollment decision depends on whether a college accepts his request for a gap year, then it would seem only fair for him to get that information first, before making a commitment to one college.
In other words, if one college accepts his gap year request and then other rejects it, he should be allowed to pick the college that accepts the request. Therefore, the most rational procedure should have been that both colleges approved or rejected his gap year request before the May 1 deadline, and then the student would have had sufficient information and opportunity to make his deposit on May 1 to one college.
However, both colleges in this case have the procedure the other way around: they require enrollment first, and then approval of the gap year request comes later. Specifically, Purdue says that you must accept admission by May 1, and then you can request a gap year by July 1. The University of Wisconsin at Madison says that a gap year request must be submitted by May 1, and then “only after review of final grades and successful completion of senior year, the appropriate deferred enrollment letter (either denial or granted letter with deferred enrollment student contract) will be posted”.
Therefore, given these “backward” procedures, I think it is fair for the applicant to find out whether his gap year request is approved at each college. Otherwise, he would have missed the deadline to enroll at the other college. But then at that point, once he has information about whether his gap year request is approved at each college, I agree that he should commit to one college and withdraw his enrollment at the other one.
Right, this describes the process at Purdue:
"How to Request a Gap Year
- Accept your offer of admission no later than May 1 (including payment of the required, nonrefundable $400 deposit).
- Complete the gap year request form by July 1, prior to your gap year (available via the admission application portal to students who have accepted their admission offer).
- Provide documentation supporting your request.
- Have your high school send official, final transcripts to Purdue University at the conclusion of your senior year. Once a gap year request has been submitted and reviewed, you will be notified by email whether or not it has been approved."
Purdue and UW-Madison both require a final High School Transcript to be submitted directly by OP’s high school. It will therefore be prudent to confirm that this will actually be happening or otherwise possibly throw a wrench in this grand ‘gap year competition’, with none of the two universities being a willing participant based on their respective admission policies. Just saying…
Since a gap year request already means an open spot for the Fall of 2018, which can then be filled from a waitlist, neither college should really care if the student has another gap year request and if he ultimately withdraws his application. If he does, that just means an open spot for the Fall of 2019, which doesn’t even have applicants yet. The apparent reason for not allowing double deposits is that colleges can’t tell if a student is really coming in the Fall of the current year, so they can’t plan for their incoming class size.
The upshot here is that you now need to withdraw from one of the other, or risk losing both. Even with a gap year, you must pick one now and defer, and let all the other options close.
@mdphd92 - Thanks for the clarification about the policies. In this case, double deposits (while a bit expensive) made sense. But ditching whichever is the “extra” should happen as quickly as possible.