Gap Year and Deferment

In some cases, students may wish to defer their enrollment at Allegheny for a year, up to two years after admission. We want to assist when considering that option.

If you decide to defer your matriculation to Allegheny for a year, please follow these steps:

  • Submit your enrollment deposit.
  • Complete our deferral form, with the details of your plans for the gap year, by July 1.Please contact your admissions counselor for assistance.
  • You will need to verify on the deferral that you will not enroll in a degree-granting program at another institution or apply to other colleges during your time off. Should you do so, you may have to reapply as a transfer student.
    You must get in touch with our Transfer Admissions Coordinator at admissions@allegheny.edu, to discuss options.
  • Global Citizen Year Partnership

    Global Citizen Year.logo

    Applicants to Allegheny College who are interested in pursuing a pre-college gap year are encouraged to consider the following opportunity.

    Allegheny College partners with Global Citizen Year to offer an 8-month global immersion and leadership training program in one of the following four locations: Brazil, Ecuador, India or Senegal. Allegheny/Global Citizen Year Fellows live with a host family and apprentice to a local organization working in education, health or sustainability. This approach is aligned with Allegheny’s mission to educate and inspire engaged global citizens.

    If you are interested in applying for this opportunity, please consult Global Citizen Year’s website for application materials and upcoming deadlines. If you indicate on your application that you are also applying to Allegheny College, Global Citizen Year will fast track your application, guarantee you a final interview, and consider you for the available pool of need-based financial aid. They will also inform Allegheny Admissions when your application to Global Citizen Year is complete.

    If you are accepted to both Allegheny College and Global Citizen Year, our Admissions team will defer both your admission offer and financial aid package for one year to allow you to participate in this transformative year of cross-cultural immersion and self-discovery.

    Financial Aid

    If you have received need-based financial-aid award from Allegheny as part of your acceptance, you will need to re-submit the FAFSA next year. It is unlikely that your financial-aid package will change unless your family’s financial circumstances change significantly during your gap year. If you have received a Trustee Scholarship that will still be available once your Allegheny enrollment begins.

    Valerie’s story

    When I applied to be a student at Allegheny College, I was 6 months out of high school and living in Azogues, Ecuador as a fellow of Global Citizen Year. Embarking on a bridge year before college was not originally in my plans and I worried about falling behind peers in what felt like a race for degrees, salaries and careers. But I didn’t feel behind when the lessons I learned from navigating life in Ecuador starting informing my classes in economics, world politics and environmental science. I remember utilizing my knowledge about oil exploration in the Yasuni National Park, an incredibly biodiverse portion of Ecuadorian rainforest, in class discussion and on tests. Although I never got to visit the park itself, I traveled to the rainforest multiple times, an experience that influenced my decision to focus on the economics of sustainable forestry for my senior thesis. Experiential learning during my bridge year ended up saving me valuable study time and best of all, helped me earn higher grades. And instead of freshman jitters, I felt empowered walking into a professor’s office to speak the strange language of degree planning after tangling for 8 months with my non-native tongue of Spanish. The time I spent kneading dough for my host moms’ bakery, planning a medicinal garden for my work site (an orphanage housing local children), educating myself on Latin American gender dynamics, and attending wild family weddings was the breath I needed to center myself before diving into four years at Allegheny. Living in rural, northwestern Pennsylvania also drew surprisingly similar parallels to living in Ecuador; it pushed me outside of my comfort zone, placed me far away from my family in California and had me adapt to an unfamiliar regional culture. A bridge year, just like a four-year degree, is an investment in your future. Without the maturity and self-reflection I gleaned from GCY, I would never have taken the risk of running for student government, or traveled to India for an internship or even been afforded the opportunity to volunteer in the Meadville community with the Bonner Program. After a year of exploring my personal and social capabilities, I entered college with an outlook that demanded I search for the boundary of what I was academically capable of. In response, I took advantage of every opportunity presented to me, which made my time at Allegheny that much more meaningful.

    View my capstone video.
    – Valerie Hurst ’18