Hi Everyone,
I am hoping that I can get some assistance in critiquing my appeal of academic suspension. My feeling is that many people will say that it is too long, but the letter is based on the guidelines for writing the appeal handed out by the school that essentially state that you need to have a minimum of 5 paragraphs to cover the topics that they outline. Please let me know what else I should improve in my letter, or if you catch any mistakes with either spelling or grammar as I’m sure that there are some that I have overlooked.
To Whom It May Concern;
My name is XXX and I am writing to in hopes of appealing my current academic suspension from Southern New Hampshire University for failing to maintain an adequate GPA of 2.00 during my time as a student. The reasoning for my poor performance during my previous terms at SNHU is due primarily to three factors that vary from term to term. The first is that I was performing a lot of work based travel that took up a large portion of my time. The second is that during my final term at SNHU I suffered a broken leg during a car accident that left me unable to perform any actions that required a clear state of mind for several months due to the heavy usage of painkillers following my surgery. During this time, I thought that I had dropped several classes but due to a miscommunication these classes were never dropped and resulted in grades that were severely damaging to my GPA. The third and most damaging reason was, to be very frank, a lack of interest on my part in completing my course of study.
In the time since I was placed on academic suspension a lot of things have changed that I feel will allow me to be a successful student should my appeal be granted. One major thing is that I am traveling significantly less for work in my current position compared to my previous, because of this I will have far more time that I can dedicate to working in an environment that will promote effective study habits. A second major benefit is that I have much more support from my family and colleagues than during my previous time at SNHU. I personally feel that the most important change that has occurred during the three years since the start of my academic suspension is the changes in my attitude. I am now at a point in my life where I genuinely realize the value of gaining a formal education.
The key factor to my being successful should I be permitted to reenroll with SNHU will be a strict time management schedule to ensure that I have adequate time to complete all assignments. I have spent some time devising a schedule that I think will allow me to be an effective student. My current plans are to dedicate an hour in the morning prior to leaving for work, this time will be spent doing the necessary course reading and responding to discussion posts. I will also dedicate an hour and a half after work each day completing assignments as well as responding to discussions from my office before leaving for home. I will then spend three hours each Saturday from seven PM to ten PM, and an additional three hours during the same times on Sundays to complete any course work not done during the week. With this schedule I have allocated seventeen and a half hours to completing school work each week. I feel this allows for an adequate amount of time to complete all of the work assigned without having a major impact on either my work, social, or family life and still leaving enough buffer if a particular week requires any additional time be allocated.
My plans for the future at SNHU is to begin immediately working toward getting my GPA back to the required 2.00 from my current of 1.566, and then maintaining that as a minimum. My home is to get my GPA to above a 3.00 before graduating. In order to accomplish this, I plan to retake all of the 5 courses that I have failed. I also intended to utilize the knowledge that the advisors at SNHU have to make sure that I am creating a class schedule that will help me get back into school in a way that is most likely to result in my success.
My long term goal for a return to SNHU is that I will be able to further grow my knowledge in my current position and potentially become eligible for further advancement on my chosen career path. I am currently employed as an IT Manager, because of this I am working toward changing my concentration to IT Management. This means that everything that I am learning is not only something that interests me, but is something that I can immediately apply to real world examples and see the effects of. I think that this will allow me to not only enjoy my courses more, but also get more out of them and enable me to contribute to discussions at a higher level that is beneficial to the class as a whole.
In considering a return to SNHU I have taken into account that circumstances may occur where I need to have plan of how I am going to continue to complete my courses in the event of something going wrong. In order to help mitigate the potential of this occurring I have made sure that I have the ability to work not only from home, but also from a variety of other locations such as work and the homes of friends and relatives. This means that I am almost always guaranteed to have reliable access to a functional computer and the internet so that I can submit assignments and contribute to discussions. In the event that I have any trouble understanding what is happening in the course I intend to make sure that I contact the instructor as early in the week as possible to help fill any gaps in my knowledge, and if I find it to be necessary during the course will attempt to find a tutor that will be able to help me better understand the content.
In closing I would like to restate my desire to appeal the decision to place me on academic suspension from Southern New Hampshire University due to my inadequate GPA. I understand that the board has a lot to consider before reaching a decision and would like to take a moment to thank you for the time spent reading this regardless of the decision that is reached. I sincerely hope however that the board will see fit to grant me a second chance to prove that I am willing to commit to being successful at SNHU.
Thank you.