<p>Hi all, </p>
<p>I'm an international and I've been accepted to both UCLA and Berkeley. Because I have compulsory military duty, I will only begin my college education in 2009. </p>
<p>At this point, I wish to go to Berkeley. However, Berkeley cannot confirm at this point (after speaking to different people) that they can reserve a place for me till 2009. They have advised that I submit by Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) and pay the deposit first and then submit a request to defer. Yet, there is still no guarantee such a request will be approved. </p>
<p>On the other hand, UCLA, according to its FAQ will allow deferment of studies due to military duties. </p>
<p>If I'm not wrong, you can only submit a SIR to one school. </p>
<p>If I submitted a SIR to UCLA, Berkeley would not consider my deferment request since they have repeatedly stressed that submitting the SIR and paying the deposit must be done before any request can be considered. </p>
<p>If I submitted a SIR to Berkeley and they decide not to defer me, I would effectively be without a college to study come 2009. </p>
<p>What should I do?</p>
<p>I have heard of people who have successfully deferred for one year their berkeley admission. </p>
<p>But on the cal website for College of Engineering, it says under FAQs that you can't defer : Freshman</a> Admission FAQ — UC Berkeley College of Engineering . But they might make exceptions for military duty? (i think they should) But the website only talks about semesters so a different policy might apply to school years. Also it's on the engineering webpage so it might not apply to all berkeley undergrads.</p>
<p>So >.> that wasn't all that helpful but I think you should try to find some statistics on how many people successfully defer admission for one year, if berkeley makes special allowances for military duty, etc @_@; If you can't then UCLA is still a really good school to SIR to and, for me, the fact that they guarantee deferrals out of respect for military duties would make me like them more. But if you really want to go to berkeley then I would just SIR and hope they allow deferral. And even if they don't if you apply again next year with the same stats, you should still have a decent chance of getting in? You could maybe even apply and be accepted to better schools >.></p>
<p>Dear unshunreshun, </p>
<p>No, that was helpful. I have hope now because you mentioned that some people have been successfully defered by Cal before. Maybe I can too.</p>