Studying with a disability / chronic illness

You can apply for a hardship case together with the application for Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes. The application must be comprehensibly justified in an informal letter and supported by appropriate evidence (e.g. a medical certificate).
According to § 11 of the Ordinance on the Allocation of Study Places in Admission-restricted Study Programmes by the Higher Education Institutions of the State of Hesse (Study Place Allocation Ordinance Hesse) of 7 May 2013, 5% of the available study places (total number of admission numbers set) are earmarked for cases of exceptional hardship. "The study places to be awarded according to hardship criteria are awarded on application to applicants for whom non-admission to the degree programme named in the application for admission would mean exceptional hardship. Exceptional hardship exists if special social or family reasons in the person of the applicant make it absolutely necessary for the applicant to take up studies immediately or to change the place of study immediately.Theranking of applicants is determined by the university according to the degree of exceptional hardship."

If you had a lot of absences during school, due to your disability or chronic illness or due to longer stays in hospital and therefore had to repeat a school year, you can apply for an improvement of the waiting period together with the application for a Bachelor's degree programme. Appropriate proof must be enclosed for this purpose.
Section 8 (3) of the Hessen Study Place Allocation Ordinance states: "Anyone who can prove that they were prevented from acquiring the higher education entrance qualification at an earlier point in time for reasons for which they themselves are not responsible will, on application, be taken into account with the earlier point in time of the acquisition of the higher education entrance qualification".

If there was a clear drop in your performance during your time at school, e.g. due to your illness, as a result of which you were unable to achieve the performance that would otherwise be normal for you, you may be able to be credited with a better average grade. You can apply for an improvement of your average grade together with your application for a Bachelor's degree programme. To do this, in addition to suitable proof, you need a school report describing your performance over a longer period of time and showing that you would have achieved a better average grade under "normal" circumstances. Furthermore, the report must specifically contain a prognosis of the average grade that you could have achieved.
Section 10 (3) of the Hessen Study Place Allocation Ordinance states: "Anyone who can prove that they were prevented from achieving a better average grade for reasons for which they are not responsible will be considered with the better average grade upon application.