Messed up situation

(edited 8 years ago)

It sounds like you had a really rough time last year, and your school has treated you unfairly.

I can totally see why you feel you might deserve to have mitigating circumstances considered, but the difficulty is that most unis will want your mitigating circumstances evidenced by someone who isn't you.

I think a first port of call might be any medical professionals who have treated you for your mental health issues- can they perhaps provide a statement on how your mental health has affected your studies over the past year?

The normal place to discuss mitigating circumstances would be in your reference- I assume this will be written for you by someone at your new college. Could you discuss the situation with them, and see what they are prepared to write in support of you?

It's also worth discussing your situation with unis before applying- however, I wouldn't give them all the details as you've written in this post. It would be enough to say "Due to my sexuality, I have had some social issues over the past year. These made my existing mental health issues become more severe, and ultimately led to me leaving my sixth-form as they were supportive" or something like that, rather than giving them every single detail.

Also, if you end up with around BCC this year, it might be worth waiting and applying after your A2 grades, A*AB may not be what you had hoped for, but are considerably more impressive than BCC and should still give you a shot at some good universities.

Finally, and this is going to sound trite, a lot of people have a plan at 18, and find out that life doesn't work out that way. I know things suck right now, but you're 17, your whole life is in front of you, and you will get there in the end. If it takes a little longer, that's ok!

Reply 2

person3867

Thank you, that's put my mind at something of ease!! So you reckon maybe take a gap year and apply after A2 for joining in 2017???

With regards to medical professionals, I really kept it all to myself for a very long time and still do to a large extent now due to a poor relationship with my parents so I don't even have any past records or anything :/

I will definitely discuss it at length with my new college and what do you mean with regards to the unis? How would I go about that? and haha yeah I definitely wouldn't give all this info- I just needed some honest advice on what to do!

Thank you so so much, that has really helped out :smile:

Reply 3

SlowlorisIncognito

Original post by person3867

If you think you're going to perform much better at A2 than at AS level, applying for 2017 entry might be the way to go. If you achieve BCC this year, a lot of unis would view predictions of A*AB as unrealistic.

It's quite usual for students with unusual circumstances to email/speak to unis informally about their circumstances, and for the uni to let them know how they would consider their specific circumstances informally. Some unis will also let you submit extra supporting evidence in some cases.

As you don't have much in the way of evidence, I would approach this from the point of view of asking your referee to explain you only joined the college just before you sat your AS exams, and to explain briefly why this was. This could at least be used to justify higher A2 predictions and explain less than expected performance at AS level.

I hope you're seeking help for your mental health issues now. If not, please do consider doing this. At 17, there's no need for your parents to be involved.

Messed up situation

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