I'm planning on applying for linguistics this year and deferring for 2025/26 entry as I want to take a gap year. I'm currently interested in York, York St John, Manchester, Leeds, LIS, and Bangor, and my current predicted grades are A*A*A*A.
When applying, should I email the individual universities to confirm if a gap year would be acceptable or is that not required? I've been recommended by my college to write what my gap year plans are in my personal statement, but I would rather not do this as I've already written my personal statement and I don't have the space, should I try and rework this in or would it be okay if I leave it out?
I was also wondering if there are any linguistics resources anyone could offer as I would love to do some further reading as I am really fascinated by linguistics.
Additionally, regarding the York Linguistics courses, how competitive is it to get onto the MSci course, and should I include anything particularly different in my personal statement to increase my chances of getting onto it? I'm currently thinking of applying for both the BA and the MSci, how different are the courses (other than the course length) and is applying for two courses at the same university even encouraged or should I only apply to one or the other?
Thank you so much