I teach at a state flagship, and parentologist’s ideas are coming from a Quora-like reasoning vacuum, not the world of admissions and budget offices. Universities don’t operate in one-year isolated increments. They’ll limit deferrals and maintain their recruiting relationships and class cohesion, keeping their eye on projected enrollment drops several years down the line. The juniors will still get hit by walking into aftermath, including loss of staff who knew how things operate. But they’ll live, which is the important thing.
I understand the outrage at paying $55k for online classes when really you’re paying for an extended cotillion that isn’t happening, but (a) hey, you were the ones who considered paying that ridiculous kind of money in the first place, and (b) that gap year is likely to mean a 6-year BA. I wouldn’t.