This may be a bit early (my eldest is only a high school sophomore), but can anyone share their wisdom/guess/anecdote on whether to expect a college will defer a merit aid offer along with an acceptance deferment in order to do a gap year? Or, would it just be better to wait to apply to all colleges during the gap year rather than waste time and money on applications knowing we’re just going to defer? On the other hand, it would be nice to have both an acceptance and finances in hand going into the gap year. Is it better to use senior year applications to gauge the market with the opportunity to apply again? The thinking is that we’d be looking at “second tier” colleges for a hi-stat kid seeking merit aid.
That is something that would likely vary by college.
My daughter was accepted with merit and deferred for a year without losing her merit. This probably varies from school to school but it was something she explored during her application process since she was already considering a gap year.
My D also was able to defer both attendance and merit at her U for a year. This was something she (we) negotiated with admissions as her gap year opportunity came up unexpectedly in late June after she had registered for classes. One of her other merit sclarship offers explicitly stated in the offer letter that it could be deferred for a year. A friends D at another college was also able to defer both admission and merit for a Year. The 3 institutions were Bucknell, Denison, and Colorado College.