Ariel Winter postponing college until 2017

Actress Ariel Winter is putting her college plans on hold for a year because she's too busy with Modern Family.

The 18-year-old plays student Alex Dunphy on the hit comedy, and she was hoping to juggle filming commitments with her new studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) this autumn (16).

However, Ariel reveals she has since deferred her start date until 2017.

"Unfortunately... due to production schedule, I have to start next year," she told E! News. "So I will be starting as a Bruin next year."

The brainy teen star will be majoring in political science at the prestigious university, which is based in California, not too far from the Modern Family set, after graduating from high school in June (16).

Ariel shared a photo of herself in the traditional cap and gown with fans on Instagram, and captioned the snap, "It's actually done...I GRADUATED."

Meanwhile, Ariel is enjoying the final days of summer as a single girl after splitting from her boyfriend Laurent Claude Gaudette earlier this year (16).

Recent reports romantically linked her to her friend and fellow former child star, Sterling Beaumon, but she recently took to Twitter to shut down the false speculation, and she can't understand why gossip bloggers refuse to believe a single guy and a single girl can enjoy a platonic relationship.

"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 told E!.

"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."

Making it clear she and Sterling are no more than pals, she added, "I'm, like, so single. If I was dating someone I would let everyone know, but I'm not."