<p>After high school, I want to spend a year in Israel either at a seminary or an Israeli university. Should I indicate my intent to defer on my applications, or wait until after I am admitted to notify the school? I just read that Boston University does not allow you to defer merit aid, are there any other schools like that? Do any ivy league schools give credit for study in Israel? Thanks!</p>
<p>Check with the specific schools you want to apply to. Much of the information will be available on their websites. The rest can be obtained by calling (anonymously, if you wish).</p>
<p>I would ask after you know you have been admitted. Also you’ll have to check with each school about the study abroad.</p>
<p>Note that while many schools do allow you to defer after you’ve been admitted,
there are a number that do not allow you to take college-level classes during the gap. College classes for credit, even in another country, could change your freshman status to transfer applicant, which may require you to reapply.</p>
<p>A phone call to a potential school’s admission department (if the info’s not on their web site) should clarify their position rather quickly.</p>
<p>So, I wrote this long reply, but then I had to step away from my computer for an hour. I’m duplicating some of what others have said. Sorry.</p>
<p>My daughter has just been through more or less what you plan to do. (She’ll leave for Israel this fall.) Here’s what works well for most colleges and universities.</p>
<p>When you’re investigating colleges, ask them their policies about taking a gap year. Most colleges and universities will be supportive. In most cases, your plan to take a gap year will have no bearing on your chances for admission, or scholarships, or honors programs and the like. If you encounter a college that tells you that you can’t take a gap year, you probably don’t want to apply there. </p>
<p>Once you’ve eliminated any such college from your list, you don’t need to tell the others about your plan while you’re applying because they simply won’t care (yet). You don’t need to tell them about your plans until after you’ve received your acceptances and chosen a college. They may want to know what you plan to do with the time. This is not a problem; you know perfectly well, you’re not the only student they’ve ever met who wants to spend a year in Israel before college. Some schools do have a limit on the number of freshmen who can defer, or a date by which freshmen must request to defer, so once you decide on a college, you should be businesslike about getting the deferral accomplished. </p>
<p>If you qualify for need-based financial aid, you’ll have to reapply for that aid before your freshman year. Families’ financial situations can change from year to year, so even if you’re in college, you need to resubmit the paperwork for need-based aid annually. The amount of your aid could change, depending on circumstances.</p>
<p>Merit aid, if you are offered any, is a different matter. My family discovered only one university where taking a gap year could affect your merit aid; that university was Brandeis. (My daughter didn’t look at BU.) At Brandeis, if you receive merit aid, the award is good for four academic years, beginning the fall after you’re admitted. If you’re not a student part of that time, because you’ve taken a gap year or you decide to take a leave of absence during college, you forfeit that portion of your merit award. But Brandeis is moving away from merit aid and toward giving more need-based aid, so this may be soon be moot. I recently posted in another gap-year thread where other families reported having similar experiences at other institutions, so be sure you ask.</p>
<p>Most of the time, permission to take a gap year is predicated on the condition that you won’t enroll in another college or university for credit. Expensive colleges and universities have an economic incentive to be strict about this: they don’t want you taking up a spot in their class, but then costing them income by bringing in a lot of credits you’ve gotten elsewhere. Now, many universities will allow you to transfer in some credits from your gap year if you’ve spent part of the time in a university, but the number may be limited, and you may not be able to transfer in all the credits you’ve theoretically earned.</p>