Deferring for a year/taking a year out?

biohaiid

Hi!
I have just finished first year of my course, and tbh I'm not sure if I want to go back.
Many reasons for this (which I won't go into, for now anyway) and nothing is decided yet. I just want to clearly know what my options are before I do decide anything.
So, it is possible to defer my course for a year at this stage, take a 'gap year' out?
If so how would I go about it?
Would I be guaraunteed back into my course after the year out? (obviously a year behind, I know).
Whilst deferring, could I also apply for other courses through the CAO to keep my options open?
Any help is much appreciated.

Hybrid_Theory

It is possible to take a "year out" alright, its called a leave of absence. There are forms for it there in the shelves beside the SAA.
The deadline for having these forms in for is around the 28th of June and the meeting at which it is decided is on the 3rd of July (which you must attend yourself).

From what I gather during a leave of absence you are no longer officially a student in UL so therefore I presume it would be possible to apply through the CAO for other courses.

I'm fairly sure you are garunteed your place when you come back but I'm not 100% on that so best to ask the people in SAA about that

Hope this helped some bit, good luck with your choice

biohaiid

Hybrid_Theory wrote: »

It is possible to take a "year out" alright, its called a leave of absence. There are forms for it there in the shelves beside the SAA.
The deadline for having these forms in for is around the 28th of June and the meeting at which it is decided is on the 3rd of July (which you must attend yourself).

From what I gather during a leave of absence you are no longer officially a student in UL so therefore I presume it would be possible to apply through the CAO for other courses.

I'm fairly sure you are garunteed your place when you come back but I'm not 100% on that so best to ask the people in SAA about that

Hope this helped some bit, good luck with your choice

This is a great help, thank you!

Delta Kilo

You cant apply through CAO without first fully leaving your course in UL. The CAO will seek proof that you are not in any third level course before you can proceed with a re-application. You can take a gap year no problem but if you want to change course you will have to decide and bite the bullet before CAO will accept your application.

biohaiid

Delta Kilo wrote: »

You cant apply through CAO without first fully leaving your course in UL. The CAO will seek proof that you are not in any third level course before you can proceed with a re-application. You can take a gap year no problem but if you want to change course you will have to decide and bite the bullet before CAO will accept your application.

Oh, so I have to completely drop out if I want to re-apply through the CAO?
Crap. I was hoping I'd be able to have more options and apply to the CAO, whilst taking a year out and see what happens. Are you sure this is how it works? The person above said I would no longer officially be a UL student for the year, and I wouldn't be receiving a grant or anything?

J_E

biohaiid wrote: »

Oh, so I have to completely drop out if I want to re-apply through the CAO?
Crap. I was hoping I'd be able to have more options and apply to the CAO, whilst taking a year out and see what happens. Are you sure this is how it works? The person above said I would no longer officially be a UL student for the year, and I wouldn't be receiving a grant or anything?

If you take a leave of absence you are still counted as a UL student I think, but you can't receive grant as you are not taking classes.

biohaiid

Cydoniac wrote: »

If you take a leave of absence you are still counted as a UL student I think, but you can't receive grant as you are not taking classes.

On the form I found online it says:
"A student who is on leave of absence is not a registered student of the University and must therefore forfeit any grant/scholarship for the period of the leave. Such grants/scholarships are normally renewed when the student resumes his/her studies."

Hmm. Confused.

Delta Kilo

I know somebody who did it, they couldnt reapply to CAO until completely dropped out of UL. CAO ask you when you reapply if you are a student and ask you to detail the course you were studying, they then verify this with the college and confirm you are no longer a student there before issuing you with a new CAO number/application.

J_E

biohaiid wrote: »

On the form I found online it says:
"A student who is on leave of absence is not a registered student of the University and must therefore forfeit any grant/scholarship for the period of the leave. Such grants/scholarships are normally renewed when the student resumes his/her studies."

Hmm. Confused.

You're not registered module-wise but you're not officially a non-student either. Otherwise you would be able to apply through CAO, which you can't. You're obviously not eligible for a grant in a year where you are not attending.

Chimaera

If you're considering a change of course, you may be able to transfer internally within UL. Depending on how closely related your new course is to your old one, you may even be able to transfer at the same year level i.e. you won't have to start back in first year again and thus don't have to pay fees for first year of the new course.

This is something you can investigate while you're on a leave of absence.