<p>If a senior has accepted a spot at a given college, and a medical condition develops making it impossible for the student to go away from home and attend that college in the fall, is it fairly easy to request a year delay? Would most / all colleges accept a request for a deferment of a year (with appropriate medical documentation)? Is there anything else that should be taken into consideration? Does it matter if the spot was accepted ED or RD? If the student's health were to be ok to take a class or two at a local college or comm college in the interim while recovering, does that impact anything? Thanks.</p>
<p>I think that many colleges would accept such a request – as long as there were medical documentation. I believe that even ED students could have such requests granted, and if the medical problem became such that the student couldn’t ever attend the ED college, the college would allow them to go elsewhere.</p>
<p>To be sure, though, you could anonymously ask colleges about their policies on this.</p>
<p>It varies. The state school my S planned to attend will only defer for a quarter. After that, he needs to re-apply.</p>
<p>Be careful to find out, once accepted and then accepted for the medical delay, the university’s policies for taking college level classes elsewhere. Generally speaking, many seem to be accepting of a few classes, as long as the student hasn’t signed up to matriculate elswhere. Again, though, if the U is accomodating to the medical delay, please respect their policies on classes at other places.</p>
<p>There’s two issues with the other classes: the place you’ve deferred may not want you to enroll anywhere else, and/or, it may not accept the credits from the other school.</p>
<p>Ok. The other classes are less of an issue, though. The bigger thing is – would most universities allow a deferment of a semester or a year with appropriate medical documentation?</p>
<p>Most colleges don’t mind a deferral, a few even encourage them (not just for medical reasons). The issue of classes is very different, you’d have to ask the college, most of the very selective colleges don’t allow for credit outside their university except under special circumstances (year abroad, AP and IB scores), but many colleges are much more generous. Deferring a semester means you miss all the orientation activities. I don’t recommend it unless you are attending a school that already defers a number of applicants to a January admission already. They usually have special programs to make their January freshmen feel welcome.</p>
<p>A neighbor’s kid was accepted at Elon last yr. but deferred due to a medical problem. My neighbor said Elon was really nice about it and the whole thing was handled with no difficulty. Elon did say not to take classes at the CC during the deferral year.</p>
<p>I have never heard of a school where this would be a problem (of course, I am a random sample of one) and I have heard numerous stories of deferrals gratiously granted. The granddaughter of a friend of mine recently was given a year’s deferral by Rhodes due to a pregnancy (oops).</p>
<p>I think most will grant a deferral, but if there is a scholarship involved, you have to make sure this will be available the following year as well (it is not a given…)</p>
<p>Many schools will not accept any credits from other Us taken before matriculation. After matriculation you usually have to have the classes pre-approved to get credit.</p>
<p>A problem with not being enrolled as a full-time student following HS graduation is that your insurance policy probably will no longer cover your child. If taking a year off for medical reasons, that would be a real issue. If it were my child, I’d contact the school to which they were accepted, explain the situation including the need not to lose medical insurance coverage, and ask for permission for the student to take enough classes locally to keep the coverage.</p>
<p>^usually the insurance covers till age 19. Some do not depend on “FT student status” at all. But it is worth checking…</p>
<p>In such a case, could the student take classes at a comm college enough to keep student status (for insurance purposes) and just accept that the comm college credits would not be worth anything or accepted by the college upon his return? Maybe I’m asking a broader question here. One could just take CC classes and accept that they aren’t meaningful to the school, right?</p>
<p>You definitely need to check with the individual college on that one. I don’t think you are allowed to enroll in another college whether it’s community college or not. I would think trying to enroll as a full time student at any other college, including community college, would be a problem with the original school.</p>
<p>If you knew you weren’t going to try to transfer the interim credits or they wouldn’t accept the credits or your college warned you not to take college classes during the interim, you could consider taking vo-tech classes in an area that you found interesting.</p>
<p>I think any private college would let you defer for health reasons,. and I would bet most public colleges would too.</p>
<p>Personally, I’d clear it with the school to which they were accepted just to make sure it caused no problems for the student. I think that most schools would be very understanding of the situation and would okay it. So far as the treatment of the comm college credits, I think that would vary from school to school. I think a state uni would probably count the credits. I think quite a few private schools would be willing to disregard the comm college credits.</p>
<p>the original school may not allow you to enroll if you have too many credits (you’d have to reapply as a transfer, not as a freshman)</p>
<p>If I were the student, I would first ask the college whether their policies allow admitted students to defer admission for a year – and I wouldn’t give any particular justification for the request. Some colleges, including some of the most prestigious ones, will allow admitted students to defer their admission for a year, no questions asked. Only if the college said that deferral was not permitted would I say that I had a medical reason for wanting to defer my admission.</p>
<p>My concern here is that a student who defers admission for a medical reason may be treated like a student who takes a medical leave of absence. Students who take medical leaves of absence usually need a medical clearance before they can re-enroll. But a student who defers admission as part of a general policy permitting it is like a student who takes a personal leave of absence; both can simply return to the college (or show up for the first time) at the predetermined time, without having to be cleared by anyone.</p>
<p>^Agreed. That’s why I think it would be really important to explain the situation to the original school and see if they would approve enrolling at the comm college strictly as a means to maintain the insurance. While under ordinary circumstances they wouldn’t, I would certainly hope that they would be willing to make an exception under the circumstances described!</p>
<p>Let me get this straight. You have a kid on insurance. He gets ill and can’t go to school. Because he can’t go to school they cancel his insurance. Seems like a scene from Catch 22. Isn’t there something seriously wrong with that system. I would ask my insurance person how that works. If you can’t fulfill the requirements to keep the insurance, but can pay for it, because you are sick, how can they just cancel the insurance? </p>
<p>WOuld the student be going to school just for the insurance, to get a couple of credits, or to just keep in “mental shape” for college and to have some contact with college students. These are all valid reasons. </p>
<p>If it was the latter, and the college didn’t want lots of new credits or someone to enroll in another college, I would bet the student could take a few classes, say in an non impacted area, art history, english lit, that kind of thing as an non fulltime student. </p>
<p>I would first check with the insurance agent about coverage. if they dump an adult child who would normally be covered while they are in school but who can’t go to school for a term or whatever while they go better, um…</p>