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Ariel Winter Is Deferring College for a Year

Modern Family star was set to start UCLA in the fall

By Francesca Bacardi, Alli Rosenbloom Sep 09, 2016 12:49 PMTags
Ariel Winter Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

The plans have changed.

Ariel Winter, who was set to begin UCLA in the fall, told E! News exclusively that she is deferring her start date for a year. "Unfortunately t his year, due to production schedule, I have to start next year," she dished to us at the Emmys Casting Nominees Reception Thursday night. "So I will be starting as a [UCLA] Bruin next year."

Although she won't be beginning classes anytime soon, the Modern Family actress still plans on majoring in political science.

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Winter, who split from longtime boyfriend Laurent Claude Gaudette earlier this year, also opened up about being single and those rumors that she was dating Sterling Beaumon. "It's funny, you know? Everyone thinks when a girl walks out with a guy, and they're friends, immediately it has to be that they're dating if they spend a lot of time together. When really it's just that people have friends, they see each other," she explained.

"I have girl best friends, I have guy best friends. I spend all the time with my friends so it's a stigma that I find kind of irritating that we're always having to be linked to somebody. I say if we're linked to somebody and we want to talk about it, we'll talk about it."

Even though she doesn't have a boyfriend, she won't be showing up to the Emmys alone. "It rotates. I might take a friend [to the Emmys]. I might bring one of my family members," she dished. "As everyone thinks I'm dating someone, I'm not. I'm like, so single. If I was dating someone I would let everyone know, but I'm not. So it really just depends, I might bring a friend this year."

Winter has been nothing if not candid about her personal life. When she and Gaudette broke up, she tweeted, "I'm like dropping hints that I'm single," also captioning the tweet, "When you're surprised that people just haven't gotten it yet..."

And when the Beaumon rumors began to swirl, she turned to Twitter again to set the record straight. "Everyone thinking I'm taken when I'm just over here like hi I'm single AF," she wrote.