Rina - 00:00
Hey guys, what's up my name is Rina and welcome back to the channel. I am a Can Gap ambassador and today I wanted to talk to you about everything to do with deferrals.
So that is, what it is, how to get one figuring out whether it's the right path for you, all of it!
If you apply for post secondary this year, but have second thoughts about whether it's what you want to do next school year. A deferral might be a perfect option for you to consider, and even if you're younger and still have applications coming up in the following years, this is a great option to know about because literally no one tells you it exists.
So that being said, let's get right into it.
What is a deferral?
Rina - 00:42
A deferral is something that you can get to postpone your offer of admission to the following semester up to a whole school year.
I do want to preface this by saying that specific conditions and rules will vary depending on this institution that you are looking at.
If you watch this video and realize that a deferral is something that you might want to consider, I would definitely recommend researching what the situation will be like for your own situation and your own schools that you're applying to.
Additionally, not all schools will offer the option for you to defer your admission, and even in the schools that do, some of the more competitive programs may not allow you to.
So what I'm about to share is based on my own experience, deferring my offer of admission from September 2021 to 2022.
Rina - 01:30
The application process for the deferral only begins after you've accepted your offer of admission to the school and the program of your choice, and typically a deferral request form will be available to you starting in the late spring to early summer.
In my experience, I think I applied in the beginning of August and it got approved by around August 15th, but this timeline can and definitely will vary depending on the person and the school that is involved.
Now how do you get a deferral and what kind of situations are even considered for a deferral?
These are two very good questions, and honestly these were the things that I worried the most about when I was applying for my deferral.
The most general way that I can put this is that you need to give them a reason why you applied this year in that next year and what circumstances have arisen since then that makes postponing your admission to next year, or the next semester, a good or better option for you.
Rina - 02:37
The reason why I say the first point is because if you write your request as if you 100% like definitely knew that there was no way you were going to even start and the school year that you were applying for then to the school.
It just sounds like you're taking advantage of a system that students with extenuating circumstances actually need.
As for the second point, there is no real checklist of things that are acceptable, because the reason why you might benefit from a deferral can be deeply personal.
They could have something to do with the uncertainty of the pandemic or sudden changes in your home environment. Maybe you want to work on your mental health or even a personal project that is starting to take off and you want to see where it's going or something like that.
This is important to consider because deferrals are reviewed case by case, and they're not guaranteed, and so you want to make sure that you present your best case.
Rina - 03:34
And lastly, they'll probably ask you about what you want to do during your gap semester or Gap Year, and so this you would just connect back to your initial reasoning of why you want the differ on the 1st place, and you'll give them just a few basic ideas of what kind of things you might want to work on.
I do want to point out, though, that especially due to the pandemic, schools are being very understanding and lenient, and I haven't heard of a single person who applied for a deferral and didn't get one.
I'm not trying to scare you off, if this is something that you want, you will probably find a way to get it. I'm just saying that these are the things that the schools ask for.
Finally the elephant in the room. Does it cost any money to defer? Again, this depends on the school and some deferral fees can go up to something around $100.
Rina - 04:29
However, all the schools that I've looked at, and I'm guessing most schools in general, have waived any kind of deferral fee because of the pandemic.
So if you are applying at this moment in time, no, there shouldn't be any cost attached to deferring your offer.
You may have to make deposits for residents or tuition fees because up until your deferral request is granted, you will have to oblige to the deadlines as if you were starting in the fall of that year that you're applying for.
Once it's confirmed that your deferral request is through and accepted, your deposits will be refunded for that year. So you don't have to worry about any of that, so these were some of the questions that I had when I was applying for the deferral, so I really hope that this video helped.
I think the deferral route was a really good option for me because it allowed me to apply to schools knowing that if I realized that I might not want to go to school next year or that if I wanted to postpone my admission, that was something that I could decide on later on.
Rina - 05:35
It allowed me to keep my options open for longer, and it also allowed me to get the best of both worlds because now I got to get my Gap Year experience. But also I got the benefit of applying in grade 12 with everybody else and with the guidance of my teachers at school.
So if you know anybody who might benefit from knowing what a deferral is, share this video with them and as always.
Thank you so much for watching. Give us a like comment and subscribe to the can gap YouTube channel for more Gap Year content.
And of course, more of ME! Just Kidding, Bye!