This page is part of the Christ's College current applicants section, Stage 2 information.
It is important to ensure that any extenuating circumstances (other than Covid-19 disruption) that have caused significant educational or home life disruption or disadvantage are explained in your application.
We will need this information to accurately assess applicants who have experienced particular personal or educational disadvantage. It helps Admissions Tutors by providing:
- context against which they can judge the academic record of an applicant
- information useful in assessing an applicant’s performance at interview
Where to include Extenuating Circumstances information
Your referee will be asked to include any extenuating circumstances in your UCAS reference. In most cases this will be enough, as all information about Extenuating Circumstances in the UCAS reference will be taken into account.
There are two cases where we may need additional information:
- If the information about your Extenuating Circumstances requires more detail than can be explained briefly in the UCAS reference
- If your Extenuating Circumstances are highly sensitive and should be treated as confidential
Examples of Extenuating Circumstances
The Cambridge Admissions website page has a list of examples of Extenuating Circumstances.
Who should complete the form?
The online form should normally be completed by a teacher/tutor at your school/college.
If that is not possible, you could ask a doctor or a care worker.
Link to the Extenuating Circumstances Form
| If you're completing an Extenuating Circumstances Form for an applicant to Christ's College >>> | Christ's Extenuating Circumstances Form |
| If your student has applied to a different College >>> | Please complete the Extenuating Circumstances Form for the relevant College here |
If you miss the 22 October deadline
We advise you to ensure that the person completing your online Extenuating Circumstances Form meets our 22 October deadline to ensure that the form is part of your application from the beginning and can be considered when deciding which applicants are invited for interview.
The centrally produced Extenuating Circumstances Form will stop working as soon as the deadline has passed, however after that time, referees will be able to access an Extenuating Circumstances Form on this page. We do continue to accept Extenuating Circumstances Forms sent after 22 October, however please bear in mind that we can only consider information that is part of your application at the time it is read.
Extenuating Circumstances information received later in the application process will be considered as part of post-interview decision-making for students selected for interview, and should be submitted at the earliest opportunity.
Disability, Neurodiversity, Mental health and long-term health conditions
There is another form to complete if you have a disability, neurodiverse condition, mental health condition or long-term health condition. Please see the information about the adjustments form (deadline also 22 October), which is needed for all students with one of these conditions, whether or not you require adjustments.
Where appropriate, it is possible to complete both an Extenuating Circumstances Form (ECF) and an adjustments form as they do different things - the Extenuating Circumstances Form is optional and tells us about any impact on your education to be taken into account when looking at your overall application, whereas the adjustments form is required and gives us practical information and things we need to know in order to organise interviews and exercises appropriately.
We will only look at the adjustments form and document when we are organising adjustments for interviews and College assessments, so please ensure that the information needed is on that form, whether or not your application will also include an Extenuating Circumstances Form.