Postponing Enrollment
Gap years provide students an opportunity to postpone their enrollment at Boston Collegefor any number of reasons. Such reasons might include the need to attend to personal or family matters, the opportunity to pursue intellectual or cultural enrichment, the need to take a break from classroom learning in order to reflect on goals and priorities for college, or an interest in volunteering, interning, or working for a period of time.
Requests will be evaluated by the Admission Committee on a case by case basis before approval is granted. Please note that students may not enroll at another college or university during their gap year or gap semester. Any academic credit earned during a gap year or gap semester will not be transferable to Boston College for any reason.
First-Year Enrollment
Students admitted through Fall First-Year admission are permitted to postpone their enrollment for one year. An exception will be made for students who must complete two years of mandatory national military service; in these cases, a two-year postponement will be permitted. Students admitted through January First-Year admission are permitted to postpone enrollment for one semester. A student may only postpone enrollment once.
Students are not permitted to apply to or enroll at other colleges during their postponement period. Doing so violates the spirit of the postponement agreement and could result in a rescission of the student's admission at both institutions. Students who decide to pursue other plans must withdraw their enrollment at Boston College before applying to other colleges.
To postpone your enrollment, you must first enroll at Boston College through your Applicant Status Portal and submit the $500 non-refundable enrollment fee by the deadline stated in your admission letter. You must then complete the Postpone Your Enrollment form which will appear in your Applicant Status Portal after you enroll. As part of this process, you must submit a written request explaining why a gap year is necessary and with detailed plans for how you will spend your gap year. All requests to postpone enrollment must be submitted by June 1 for Fall Freshmen and December 15 for January Freshmen. (Note: Students who receive an admission offer after having been placed on the waitlist do not have the option of postponing their enrollment.)
If your postponement request is approved, it will be your responsibility to keep your contact information up to date during the postponement period. In the month of January preceding your new enrollment term, we will ask you to reconfirm your intent to enroll by paying an additional non-refundable $1,000 Enrollment Reconfirmation Fee. This will provide us assurance of your continued intention to enroll before our Regular Decision Admission Committee meets to finalize offers of admission. The $1,000 Enrollment Reconfirmation Fee will be applied to your first semester's tuition bill. Boston College financial aid recipients may be eligible for a reduction of the Enrollment Reconfirmation Fee; requests will be considered on a case by case basis.
Financial Aid recipients must also submit an updated financial aid application prior to the new entrance term. Any current aid award is not guaranteed and a new award applicable to the new entrance term will need to be determined.
Information on registration and orientation will be forwarded to students in December for those now enrolling in the spring term, and in March for those now enrolling in the fall term.
Transfer Enrollment
Students admitted through our transfer process are permitted to postpone their enrollment for either one semester or one year. A student may only postpone enrollment once.
Students are not permitted to apply to or enroll at other colleges during their postponement period. Doing so violates the spirit of the postponement agreement and could result in a rescission of the student's admission at both institutions. Students who decide to pursue other plans must withdraw their enrollment at Boston College before applying to other colleges.
To postpone your enrollment, you must first enroll at Boston College through your Applicant Status Portal and submit the $500 non-refundable enrollment fee by the deadline stated in your admission letter. You must then complete the Postpone Your Enrollment form, which will appear in your Applicant Status Portal after you enroll. As part of this process, you must submit a written request explaining why a gap year is necessary and with detailed plans for how you will spend your gap year. All requests to postpone enrollment must be submitted by June 15 for Fall Transfers and December 20 for January Transfers.
If your postponement request is approved, it will be your responsibility to keep your contact information up to date during the postponement period. In the semester preceding your new enrollment term, we will ask you to reconfirm your intent to enroll by paying an additional non-refundable $1,000 Enrollment Reconfirmation Fee. This will provide us assurance of your continued intention to enroll before our Transfer Admission Committee meets to finalize offers of admission. The $1,000 Enrollment Reconfirmation Fee will be applied to your first semester's tuition bill. Boston College financial aid recipients may be eligible for a reduction of the Enrollment Reconfirmation Fee; requests will be considered on a case by case basis.
Aid recipients must also submit an updated financial aid application prior to the new entrance term. Any current aid award is not guaranteed and a new award applicable to the new entrance term will need to be determined.