UC System Gap Year/Semester

Hello! I’m an incoming High School senior.

In the Summer of 2021, I already am planning on traveling and living in Asia. However, as the pandemic has gotten worse, I feel like I want to take a gap year abroad, if not semester. As I look to apply for colleges this year, I am not knowledgeable about possible deferrals and how they work as I no longer have access to my school counselors.

A common practice is to withdraw from classes on day one, but I preferably still be in Asia at that time. I am doing my college applications as normal, and I am likely to be accepted into several UCs with my grades. Should I accept the admission and try to defer to little success, or should I not accept it and commit to an entire year off?

I plan to be living in Korea under a university or private school language study program, and I believe it will be a beneficial gap year as I hope to apply for Linguistics as apart of my dual-major. So no worries that it’ll seem like a year where nothing has happened. I’m just not certain if this gap should be just a semester or an entire year (the program offers both).

Can I reapply for the UC if I reject the admission? Will that be shown/Possibly affect next years admission?
Is it possible to deliberately apply to the Spring semester at UCB?

Between a gap year and semester, which would you recommend?

[1480 SAT (was only able to take once due to COVID)]
[4-5s on all my APS]
[4.0 Unweighted/4.4 Weighted]
[Vice President of Speech and Debate (Nationally ranked)]
[President of Dance Club]
[100+ Volunteer Hours]
[Target schools: UCLA, UCB, UCI]

In normal times, UC’s rarely defer but these are not normal times. At the moment, deferrals are handled on a case by case basis. Also for now, UCB does not let you apply for Spring semester but things can change. UC Merced has offered Spring admission for Freshman.

Apply this year, see where you are admitted and then go from there. You will not be penalized if you do not accept your admission, take a gap year and reapply.