College decisions are out, and now it is seniors turn to decide where they will enroll for the fall. Colleges across the country have pushed their decision deadline (or deposit deadline) back to June, giving many students a bit more time to decide than usual. It’s good that students have more time, too, because there is more to consider than ever before. We believe that it is entirely possible that many colleges will not start the fall semester with students on campus.

It’s also possible that schools that do have students on campus will nevertheless need to recalibrate their educational programs to fit with a world that is still handling a global crisis that is sure to impact international students, study abroad, and more. Students have been reaching out to us with a variety of questions in response to this uncertainty, but one is overwhelming: Should I postpone my enrollment in college, aka defer?

We are huge fans of purposeful and well-planned gap years. We wish more of our students would take them, and we highly recommend that students who were planning to take a gap year before this started and who are still going to be able to pursue their original plan follow through with that intention. However, this not the time to take a gap year because you’re panicking. Many students who were planning to take a gap year shouldn’t even do it anymore. If you can’t do what you had your heart set on and don’t have a feasible alternative plan other than sitting around for nine months, you absolutely should not be taking a gap year. To take a gap year would be a terrible, horrible, overall bad idea.

If everyone were to take our advice, very few people would be taking a gap year next year — but those who should still defer and take a gap year fit into four key categories:

Uninterrupted Plans

If you were already planning to take a gap year and there is a 100% chance that your original vision for your gap year will still be feasible, go ahead. We can’t think of many potential productive gap years that fit into this model, but we’re always open to being surprised. One example is if you intend to work for a year to save money because you knew before this crisis that you would be taking on the burden of paying for all or part of your tuition yourself. If that is the case and a well-paying job is still on the table, we understand the need to continue down that path. It would be a different story if you were planning on traveling the world during your gap year. That’s probably not going to happen, so it’s time to enroll.

Money

Some students who didn’t think the cost of college was going to be a problem may be facing a new reality due to the economic downturn and surge in joblessness. If you are beginning to realize that you’re going to have to foot some of the bills, taking a year off to work may make sense. Before you make your decision, though, you need to do some math.

One of the members of our team managed to save $17,000 during her gap year. She had a full-time fellowship position with a nonprofit that paid more than minimum wage, but what really made the difference was that she was able to live at home. If she had had a longer commute and hadn’t been able to live at home, all that money she saved would have been devoured by rent.

If your goal is to save money to help pay for school, you need to have a plan that actually leads to that result in a sizable way that will make a difference when you do enroll. If you can’t come up with a plan that results in a swollen savings account, it may be better to find alternative sources of funding and go straight to school.

Family

The next good reason a student may have to take a gap year is family. Families around the world are being impacted, and often hurt, as a result of the current crisis. Many families will need time to heal, while many others will need to redefine how they operate to support each other and survive. This could result in new family commitments and responsibilities that current seniors had not previously expected to have to carry.

If a student finds themselves with new responsibilities that require them to be close to home and they were not accepted by a college that is close enough to accommodate a commute, they may need to take a gap year. It is absolutely critical that these students use their gap year not just to support their family, but also to ensure their educational future. It is very easy for one year off to turn to two and for that to extend indefinitely.

If you learn that you will need to stay close to home for more than one year, it may be worth looking into applying to a local college so that you are not on an indefinite educational pause.

New Opportunity

The final reason for a student to take a 2020-2021 gap year is a new opportunity. Such opportunities must be productive, purposeful, and ideally oriented towards, if not entirely focused on, what you want to study in college. We think that this is extremely unlikely. Internships are being canceled, not offered. Jobs are being lost, not found. Opportunities are not appearing out of thin air. If you find one, congrats, but it has to be certain, secure, and more than sitting on the couch.

Whether or not you fit into one of the buckets above, we would not be surprised if colleges are a lot less lenient about handing out deferrals this year than they have been in the past. A deferral is a courtesy, not a right, and it’s up to colleges whether to hand them out. If a college declines to give out a deferral, it isn’t always personal. In fact, it rarely is.

When a college decides to let a student defer, they are giving that student a seat in the class for next year. That decision has ripple effects. These ripples are amplified as more and more students are given deferrals. The ripples impact next year’s class and admissions process, reducing the number of seats available to the high school class of 2021. If too many students try to defer, colleges are going to have to start saying no — even to students with good reasons.

To maintain the possibility of deferral for students who genuinely need them, we are asking students not to defer unless they fit squarely into one or more of the categories we’ve outlined above. If you do not have finances, family, or new or uninterrupted opportunity pulling them away from starting school in the fall, you should not take a gap year for 2020-2021.

If you are a sophomore or junior who is considering taking a gap year before heading off to college, send us an email. We help students get into their dream schools so that they can fully enjoy their break from the classroom.