Hi, I was hoping for some feedback on my reinstatement petition. I know the main problem is that it’s too long right now, but I tried to include everything that online forums and help sites have advised me to include. How can I thin it down and improve it? Any feedback is appreciated and it would especially help if you are a professor and have experience reviewing appeals. Thank you.
To the XXX Committee,
I am writing to petition my academic disqualification from the XXX. I am fully aware of the reasons I have been disqualified. In this letter I will not make excuses for my low grades and poor academic performance, but I would like to explain my circumstances and what I can change to combat my personal failings.
Over this past semester my parents’ post-marital problems got worse. It had always been bad, but was rekindled when this summer I went to China to visit my mother’s side of the family but did not visit my father and his side of the family. (After the divorce, he moved to my grandmother’s house in China.) My father has always bad-mouthed my mother’s family and threatened to sue her for money, and after what happened this summer, he took the issue personally to my mother. She had always been unstable since the divorce, and utilized me as an outlet for her emotional stress and anxiety, as she had done before. Due to the rekindling of familiar events, they both dragged me into their post-marital affairs as they did in the past.
My reaction was wrong. I found myself unable to concentrate on school work or be fully present in class both physically and mentally. I didn’t take my personal reaction to stress seriously and I didn’t acknowledge that I may need to withdraw from classes or do less to accommodate my situation. I felt like I had to get over my problems on my own–I never felt they were an excuse for neglecting schoolwork but I let them get the better of me. Rather than reach out and address my problems with faculty or professionals, I decided to bury myself in social life and extracurriculars to keep my mind off of my parents’ ongoing dispute and to avoid being alone. I let my self-pity comfort me and refused to confront my loneliness and only got more invested in my social life, as it provided a false sense of comfort. Thus, I committed hours to things that didn’t relate to my success in my classes.
This led to a lack of other things that would have contributed to my success, such as forming study groups with a supportive group of friends who shared similar majors with me (I befriended people from different majors, as a result, we barely discussed school), seeking help through tutors and office hours, and communicating with professionals and loved ones. For example, I was wrong in avoiding talking to Professor XXX at the beginning of the year, and for not going to Professor XXX’s office hours when he offered them. I can tell my professors wished they could help me, but could not give me an unearned grade. Though I reached out to them the week before finals, that was way too short notice and though some did try to help me still, I couldn’t remedy an entire semester of poor academic performance in a week and with a final.
But in my past year and a half at XXX, not all the time I stole from academic success was invested recklessly. The extracurriculars I mentioned included interning with the XXX, being on the XXX leadership team, competing at XXX with XXX’s first mock trial team, helping organize and coordinate fundraising events through multicultural clubs (charity banquets and fundraising for XXX), and even joining the campus conversation on the relationship between student life and social justice (XXX, open mic nights, United for Peace, etc). Being at XXX has made my participation in all of these possible, and some have been arguably life-changing and undeniably exhilarating.
My mother is now seeking therapy to address her post-marital problems and I’ve begun confronting my father about how he may no longer drag me into the affairs of their divorce. If reinstated on probation, I, personally, intend to narrow my over-commitments down to only what I really can handle, not what will help me take my mind off things. To emphasize my determination at success at a school I truly learned to value, I intend on going to office hours when I first start to slip, establishing more personal relationships with my professors, being more cognizant in class as commitment towards my education and what I’m actually learning pertaining to my major which I genuinely enjoy, and seeking out ways to double-check my progress, such as meeting with my faculty advisor and with XXX (the assistant to the dean), booking tutoring appointments and establishing a circle of friends that support each other succeeding in similar majors. To begin raising my GPA, I will start by re-taking the courses I failed, as they now replace grades rather than average them, and I will take courses every summer if necessary at XXX or XXX to meet requirements.
I do not excuse for one second that I neglected to do what is the number one job for students: maintaining academic success. I treated school like a part-time job, when it should be my full-time investment. Seeing my education being taken away from me as a consequence of my actions fuels me to want to work harder, to not lose focus again. If and when something comes up next semester, I will be prepared to address it from a stance where my education is prioritized. With the same energy and dedication I am putting into this petition, I am determined to put forth into proving I can handle meeting necessary requirements for graduation and prosper as a student at XXX.
Thank you for giving me the chance to evaluate my failings and for taking the time to read over my petition. Please contact me by email or phone if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
encl. divorce document, air tickets to China, phone bill showing calls between my parents and my mom and I