I was admitted to a school via ED II. I know that I’m supposed to attend, but I’ve run into some issues that will either force me to take a gap year or attend a school that’s closer to my residence (Northern California). My parents are getting older and are suffering from health issues nearly every day. I’m not going to get too specific on what the issues are, but they’ll likely need me to take care of them or help around the house a couple days a week. My brother’s in middle school right now and having someone available to take care of him over the weekend would lessen the burden on my parents by a ton.
Here are my questions: How do I go about asking for a gap year? Who do I email, and what happens if I’m not allowed the gap year? I’m supposed to accept my offer of admission by March 1st. What happens if I don’t accept that offer? Would I be able to accept offers from the UC’s and/or other universities?
My second question is: If I take a gap year, am I still bound by the ED II agreement? I have a 4.0 UW, 2240 SAT, and many extracurriculars and awards. I’m counting on acceptances from Cal and UC Davis in March. I’d much rather attend Cal at this point as it’s only around 40 minutes from home, wheras the school I was accepted to is over 2000 miles away.
Anyhow, it’s going to be very hard for me to attend my ED II school for the next 4 years. I hear UC’s are very hard to transfer to if you’re from an OOS university, so I’d much rather attend a UC at this point for the reasons stated above. Is there any way to cancel the ED II agreement and attend a UC school instead?
It’s quite easy to ask for a gap year, and it’s extremely unlikely that your college will react negatively to the request. Draft a simple letter saying some of the things you’ve written here, and ask to defer your matriculation until the following fall.
You are bound by your ED agreement, yes, but you can ask your college to release you from it (again, saying some of the things you’ve said here) and I expect they will assent. I’ve seen it done several times, and colleges are usually understanding about the sort of problems you are experiencing.
Here’s what I’d do:
- if you don’t hear from UCs by March 1, pay the deposit and enroll.
- if you get accepted to Cal and want to be released from your ED II school, send a letter explaining your situation and asking to be released from the ED agreement.
- if they say no or you aren’t accepted to Cal, send another letter asking to defer admission and take a gap year
Hope this all works out for the best, @SoComplicated
@marvin100 Thanks for the help. I haven’t gotten a decision back from Cal yet, and I don’t think I’ll be getting one until mid-March (after the deadline for accepting admission is due).
So, should I accept the ED II offer of admission and then wait for my decision from Cal? I believe, however, that I’m required to withdraw all applications after I accept my offer of admission. Would asking for or taking a gap year allow me to circumvent this in any way? Also, I thought you had to ask for a gap year before formally accepting my offer of admission.
Yeah, but you can get away with waiting a couple weeks, I believe. I don’t think you’re prohibited from asking for a gap year before formally accepting, but that might depend on the school.
Why don’t you just contact the school with the same information and decline the ED? Do you think you will have a clearer determination in a year? From what you’ve written above I don’t think so.