Academic Dismissal Appeal Letter Help??

***I was wondering if someone would be willing to read this appeal letter for me and tell me what they think of it. I would be grateful for any and all opinions on it.

To whom it may concern,

I am writing this letter to appeal my academic dismissal from XXXXX that I received. This decision did not surprise me, but it left me feeling very upset. I knew that I was on academic probation and that with the summer semester I had to raise my GPA above the requirements to remain a student and failed to do so by getting a 1.92 GPA for the summer term. By no means am I making excuses for this poor performance on my behalf, but I would like a chance to explain the circumstances leading to this point.

At the end of the spring semester, I realized that I needed to raise my grades in order to remove myself from probation. Going into the summer semester, I felt that due to my distance from the school it was easier to do things myself instead of seeking help from my instructors, tutoring, or other resources available through the school. During the summer semester, I let my health issues interfere with the time that I should have spent focusing on my homework and studying for my classes. I began correcting them while trying to find out what was causing them by visiting the clinic on campus. I realize now this is where I should have communicated with my professors about my circumstances to ensure that I was doing everything possible to obtain higher grades and remain on top of my school work. I also should have utilized the various options available to students on campus, such as SI sessions or free tutoring, or taken the minimum credits needed to remain full-time to allow me to focus better instead of going back home immediately after class.

I love XXXXXX and would love to graduate from this school with my degree. If you choose to reinstate me, I plan to change the habits that led to my low GPA in the previous semesters. I will ensure that these mistakes do not happen again and I have already analyzed the different things that I need to change in order to prevent myself from making the same mistakes again. If reinstated, I will have a devoted study area to ensure that I have ample time to focus on my studies with no outside distractions. I also plan to take no more than 12 credit hours to ensure that I do not overload myself again. The university offers free tutoring and I will take advantage of this benefit as well as the SI sessions, if provided. I will ensure that my health does not interfere with my education again. I hope I can convince the committee to give me a second chance and allow me to come back for one more semester to prove that I can be a good student. Thank you for considering my appeal of my academic dismissal.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXXX

I am not understanding how your geographic distance from school this summer prevented you from getting help from professors (since many students ask questions through email) assuming you were on campus going to class. You also say you were actively involved with getting health care at the clinic on campus as well.

CheddarcheeseMN: I live over an hour from campus and I was only participating in online classes for the summer semester. For the spring semester I was on academic probation, I took two classes in the classroom and then the rest were online. Our school offers student led tutoring/tips to pass the class as well as tutors for the classes and I chose to go home instead of utilizing those resources. That’s what I was trying to convey in the above. I was involved with finding out what health issues I was facing that led to several ER visits/health clinic visits on campus. I had to pick and choose what to put in there and focus on the things that I could prove as they require a letter from your doctor/on official letterhead stating how the illness/condition affected your ability to study and attend classes. The letter is only allowed to be 1 page type-written and with what is posted above, there is no more that I could add to it and keep within that limit.