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Would a university take this into consideration in my application?

Hello,

I'm going into year thirteen and I'm really, really worried that I won't get accepted for a competitive course because of the grades I will probably get at the end of this year.

Basically, for the past year and a half I've suffered from undiagnosed Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Some of my symptoms include daily migraines, fainting, painful bruising, chronic fatigue and pretty much constant all over pain. By January I could no longer write, sit up properly or walk very far. My shoulders and hips dislocate almost daily (sometimes up to four times a day) and I'm due to have surgery on my spine due to degenerative disc disease.

We couldn't apply for any special consideration at the time of exams because due to the rarity of EDS most of the doctors I saw on the NHS did not know of the condition and I ended up being accused of making up the whole thing. So by the time I got a diagnosis it was far too late.

I also had undiagnosed dyslexia at the time (no extra time) and due to the doctors not diagnosing EDS until too late I have absolutely terrible school reports, working grades throughout the year and have been informed by my teachers that I will have a not so good reference even though they were aware of the symptoms I was going through. (I go to a grammar school and the head of sixth form has said that there is no way of proving that I was affected by this during the year or through exams and I shouldn't be making excuses for not working hard enough- even though I tried to keep up my attendance as much as possible and studied as much as I could.)

My parents are already trying to appeal to the school about the references but I'm really scared that my results will mean that I will be unable to apply to a competitive university.

Even though I suffered from slightly lesser symptoms during GCSE years I managed to get 13 A*s due to a lot of hard work and had very high hopes for university, but now this year I was averaging on Ds and Cs and haven't managed to complete a single test paper throughout the year. I've accepted that I can't apply to any of the top ten universities but I don't feel like I even have a chance with any university.

Sorry for such a long post that probably doesn't make too much sense but I've been feeling incredibly stressed and worried about the whole thing. The school have already said that if I don't make my predicted grades (All As) I won't be able to carry on studying there for my final year and I know that I have definitely not achieved my predicted grades. I know that I might just have to retake the year but I was wondering whether a university with say a typical offer of AAB would still consider my application despite my possibly terrible results?

Reply 1

damsontreeclimbr

Hey
That sounds pretty terrible!
Good luck with your results tomorrow, I'm sure knowing them will help with deciding and working out your options.
I'm sure uni's would take that into consideration and especially with your gcse's you should still be able to get onto a fairly competitive course (I would think). You should ring up the uni's you're interested in and tell them the situation and ask whether they'd consider you and or what advice they have (then you'll know which uni's it's worth applying to). They could also let you know whether resitting the year would be worth it or if you can just pull your grades up this year (and perhaps they give you a slightly lower offer)
Your school doesn't sound very helpful about it - maybe moving schools would be better, you might be happier and they may be more keen to help you to get onto the courses you want. Also getting a reference which says of the difficulties you've had and how you're a very talented hardworking student etc would be very helpful for getting onto a competitive course.

Also, try not to stress, you should chase your dreams, but it's not the end of the world, there are plenty of very good uni's out there, you can take your time, and exams aren't the be all and end all of life!! (even though it seems like it at school)

I hope that makes a bit of sense and helps :smile: