do unis take mental health/attendance into account?

I've done decently well in my GCSEs (998888877) and plan on going to imperial or getting a degree apprenticeship in a STEM field in the future
my mental health during year 10 and 11 has been awful, my attendance in y11 was 60% and 70% in y10, and in school I barely attended lessons anyway
given the fact I have gotten all grades above 7 would a top uni still consider my grades as I was not in school as much as students who achieve exceptional grades? or will I be at even more of a disadvantage because they will not like my low attendance
not really sure where to post this, thank you to anyone who can help me with this

for more info I'm taking bio chem maths and epq at a level and want to study biotech or do a biotech/biology related degree apprenticeship, but definitely nothing in medicine

Reply 1

Admit-One

Universities Forum Helper

Attendance won't really be taken into account at all - it's not passed along as part of your uni application, (only the content of your reference, and it's unlikely they would mention it by itself).

There is however a section in the reference for any circumstances which affected your studies. So if there were any health issues during GCSE's you should make sure your ref addresses them there, so unis can consider them along with your grades.