Curious if any admissions officers out there have any insight into how the colleges and universities might deal with this situation? If a bunch of this year’s seniors end up taking a gap year this year and starting at their universities a year late, causing the universities to move down their wait lists to fill this years upcoming class, does that mean the admission rates for the Class of 2021 are going to go WAY down making things way more competitive than normal? Am I reading the situation all wrong?
This will be school dependent, and will vary.
Some schools have very specific rules for gap years, so they won’t grant deferrals for covid-19 uncertainties, while others will.
At the schools that allow deferrals, yes, some percent of the class of 2021 will already be filled before application season, and that may be larger than we see in a typical year’s deferrals.
Once the dust settles, you could reach out to admissions at the schools on your list and ask how many deferrals they granted for class of 2024.
It is too early to worry about this. The colleges don’t know yet whether they will have any classes at all in the fall. And if they do end up with a semester or two of online education, there is no telling what they might cook up for the fall of 2021. This will be a transformative year in higher ed.