UCAS and Gap year

So I applied at through UCAS at the end of Nov, but over the past few days I've been thinking about taking a gap year, initially I was put off as I was under the impression universities weren't keen on you taking a year out after A-Levels? I haven't really seen anything to prove this.

I am just wondering if I do decide to take a gap year, how would i go about this with my UCAS application? Is it too late to defer entry, or would I have to decline offers and re apply next year? If so would universities be able to see this/would i be disadvantaged?

Thanks for any help!

I think you'd have to email the Unis you've applied to and ask them if they would change your offer (if you get in) to deferred entry. Different Unis will have different views on that. Taking a gap year doesn't put Unis off, depending on what you do with it! If you got a job/work experience or something it can look great, because you can talk about what you learnt from it (I took one- worked in an office for 5 months then as a teaching assistant in NZ for 7!). If you ask Unis you've already got into if you can defer entry it might be useful saying why/what your plans are. If they don't want you to defer you'd have to decide whether to decline offers and take a year out, or go to the Uni you wanted to this year. Hope this helps!

most unis actually like students to take gap years - if you're doing something productive and preferably relevant to your course.

i'd advise you to phone them rather than emailing - at this time of year, it could take them days to even see your email. phone the department - look online for the admissions tutor. tell them why you want to take a gap year, and what you're going to do. and ask if they'll defer your offer.

this applies if they've already given you an offer... if you haven't got one, you can phone them but i think they may be more reluctant to discuss your application with you.

make sure this is really what you want to do, and that you've actually got a realistic plan of what you'll do. you'll need to earn some money too.

Thank you for the help! I'd really like to do a ski season, possibly a instructors course or something whilst I'm out there. I was then thinking once the season has finished, try and get some work experience related to the degree I'm going to study (Accounting and Finance) for the rest of the year.

I sort of have the feeling that my teachers have under predicted my grades though, I have had to 2 AS resits this week and they have gone really well and I've put stacks of revision in for my unit 3 exams as well. This has limited my uni choices, and if I were to defer entry but did a bit better grades wise, Id be annoyed that wasn't at the better uni, especially after having to pay all that money on fees etc. What I was thinking was Id work my **** off this year get some good grades under my belt, take a gap year doing something I really enjoy as well as doing something productive then re apply next year to study for a degree. But would that be risky, say if I didn't improve my grades and then went on to reapply for unis next year, that i had declined this year, could they even tell I had already declined an offer ?

Hope this makes sense and again many thanks for your help!