"MANYA GUPTA FROM INDIA was supposed to begin her studies this fall as an incoming freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, but the coronavirus pandemic upended her plans. So in June, for logistical, health and safety reasons, she decided to defer her admission and spend the coming academic year on a gap year.
‘As of now, I’m interning for content development with a nonprofit that works primarily on rural education and microfinance for women, and I’m volunteering to help with curriculum development for another education nonprofit,’ Gupta says. ‘Soon, I will enroll in Global Citizen Academy, an online leadership and social impact training program.’
Gupta isn’t alone in making the choice to defer admission to a U.S. university due to the extraordinary circumstances of the global pandemic. Some 286 U.S. institutions reported that 57,555 international students have accepted enrollment for fall 2020 so far, and 4,488 additional students have deferred to spring 2021 and beyond, according to a July survey by the Institute of International Education." …