Applying to uni with lower grades with extenuating circumstances

I have been ill for the past three and a half years. This included half or my AS year and all of my A2 year of sixth form. Consequently, I did not get the A Level grades I should have. My GCSE and AS Level results are fine but the illness got worse in my A2 year so my A2 modules went really, really badly and brought down my overall A Level grades. In the end, I got one grade below my predicted grade in one subject and two grades below in the other two. Since I have been ill since I left school I have not been able to re-sit the exams. I am planning to apply to university for 2016 entry was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on exactly what to say to the universities. Has anyone ever had a uni accept them with several grades lower than their typical offer with extenuating circumstances? How did you tell the universities about the extenuating circumstances? What evidence did you need to provide (Doctors letters etc.)? Since the illness has lasted for the last two years since I left school so do I need to send anything to the unis to prove I will be well when I start uni? Thank you in advance.

I m afraid that generally they don't lower offers if you have ec's, they might be a bit more lenient on results day if you just missed your offer but otherwise since its meant to be the exam board who give you the special consideration and if you got that the unis wont be able to do much for you, sorry.
Unless you want to do a course you need to pass a health check for then i wouldnt worry about proving you ll be healthy when you start, if you did become unwell then the uni should do everything they can to support you.

I thought the unis could if the exam boards didn't/ the 5% consideration couldn't be expected to compensate for the effect of the illness. I don't need to pass a health check so that's fine.

Unless you can get your referee to speak to a uni themselves it doesn't help much and even then it might not help at all. (I had ec's myself with a terminally ill relative when I was applying to uni and they couldn't really do anything for me).

I'm not sure if I can do that. I'll try but my school is pretty useless usually haha. I can get a consultant's letter explaining the situation though if that would help. I'm sorry, I hope everything worked out for you in the end.

I dont think it would to be honest, the system isnt particularly compassionate to say the least. How about you speak to universities where you would like to apply and see exactly what their thoughts are so you know where you stand?
What is it you wanted to study, worst case scenario you could do it with a foundation year?.
I got into uni through clearing in the end and through some miracle my relative survived until the just before Christmas of my 1st uni year so was better than i could have expected really.

Yeah, that doesn't really surprise me. The exam board system wasn't either; I've no idea how 5% could possibly be of any use for most illnesses. It would really be much better if they had appeals and gave you a grade based on your predicted grade or AS grade or something (only if you had proper evidence like a medical certificate or something though to stop people just making stuff up). Yeah, I'll do that. I think I'll email some admissions tutors and see what they say. Biochemistry but I don't think I qualify for a foundation year as far as I know. I'm under 21 and I have the correct subjects but just not the grades. That's good, what subject do you study?

I have been ill for the past three and a half years. This included half or my AS year and all of my A2 year of sixth form. Consequently, I did not get the A Level grades I should have. My GCSE and AS Level results are fine but the illness got worse in my A2 year so my A2 modules went really, really badly and brought down my overall A Level grades. In the end, I got one grade below my predicted grade in one subject and two grades below in the other two. Since I have been ill since I left school I have not been able to re-sit the exams. I am planning to apply to university for 2016 entry was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on exactly what to say to the universities. Has anyone ever had a uni accept them with several grades lower than their typical offer with extenuating circumstances? How did you tell the universities about the extenuating circumstances? What evidence did you need to provide (Doctors letters etc.)? Since the illness has lasted for the last two years since I left school so do I need to send anything to the unis to prove I will be well when I start uni? Thank you in advance.

If you referee is very clear about the impact the illness had on your studies universities will usually be flexible for one maybe 2 grades. 5 grades off is almost unheard of I'm afraid. Is there any chance that you could do an additional A level or some Open Uni modules - that would both demonstrate that you're academically capable of more than your previous grades show and that you're now well enough to go on to uni.

I did health and social care, I m about to start nursing oh tell me about it , the exam board made me choose between being with a relative who just had a heart attack wasn't even 12 hours previously or not getting my a2s till the year after it was just awful that day the I think 2% didn't help whatsoever.
I ve heard of some unis treating foundation years on a cases by case basis but keeping looking there could be one whose happy to take your a levels you never know.

Not entirely sure if this is what you were asking, but two of my choices (QMUL and Birbeck UoL) gave lower than the typical offer for my course (ABB instead of AAB and BBB instead of ABB, respectively - this was despite my predicted grades still being quite high at A*AB) and I had extenuating circumstances that my referee made clear in my UCAS application.
Side note to that, I didn't get rejected from any of my choices (RHUL [firm], Essex [insurance], Birkbeck UoL, QMUL and Roehampton). So it pays to apply strategically - typical grades for these universities were from AAB-BBB.

I ended up coming out with ACD (A being in my chosen subject) and went to my insurance choice (Essex, whose offer was ABB).

Literally, the only thing you can do is get your referee to make it known that you have EC's and hope for the best.

Thank you, I'll make sure I get my referee to say in the reference. If you were ill did you provide a doctor's letter?

I think I did for my school, then they just communicated it to my firm and insurance. On my UCAS application I had already told them I had a disability so all 5 choices knew, and it was mentioned in my reference. I just happened to have a flare up during my last A2s which is why my referee contacted them again to explain why my grades might be lower than anticipated.

This is all so long ago now, I'm about to go into my 3rd year.

Right okay, I'll try and get one as well then. Your school sounds better than mine haha! Oh right, thank you for trying to remember then! What and where are you studying?

You definitely need medical evidence if it's from an illness! That's the only other (obvious) thing. And once you have that, you hand it over to your referee, and that's about all you can do. Try not to stress too much - I know, I know, everyone is saying this, you're probably sick of it, but really it will work out. Sucks about your school though, what are they not doing? Is it just your referee or is it the school in general?

I ended up going to my insurance, the University of Essex, and I study psychology. I'm so glad I got into Essex and not to my firm, mainly because they've helped me so much with my disability and mental health issues. Honestly, I don't think I would've been able to get this far without them.

Where abouts are you aiming to go? What are you going to be studying?

Oh yeah, I know! I knew you did really. My illness has been a really long story and I wanted to see what other people who were successful at getting in after extenuating circumstances had done. I've had sort of deferred conditional offers before but I've still been too ill to resit the exams and now the problem is that the exams are changing to the two year A Level next year. To explain more I could send you a private message but I don't really want to go into it in detail in a public forum. Yeah haha, I am definitely stressed! Oh, back when I sat my A Levels they weren't going to contact my firm and insurance to tell then about the illness at all originally and then when I asked them to they were going to do it after results day which would have been useless and then when I said you're not supposed to do that they still only contacted my firm and not my insurance which I only found out after they had already rejected me through UCAS! The school in general haha! Terrible teaching, awful organisation etc... Aww that's really good then! It was obviously meant to be! I haven't fully decided yet on where and I'll be hopefully studying Biochemistry.

I dont think it would to be honest, the system isnt particularly compassionate to say the least. How about you speak to universities where you would like to apply and see exactly what their thoughts are so you know where you stand?
What is it you wanted to study, worst case scenario you could do it with a foundation year?.
I got into uni through clearing in the end and through some miracle my relative survived until the just before Christmas of my 1st uni year so was better than i could have expected really.

I know that you posted this some time ago but hopefully, you see it! I'm in a similar situation and found out just 2 months before sitting my exams this year that my mother has a life-threatening illness. I don't mean to be intrusive/insensitive but was your relative a parent? I'm not sure if this would make any difference