Hey I was wondering if you guys could give me some pointers on my academic suspension appeal
As of December 22, 2016, I have received an email stating that I had been academically suspended form attending Central Michigan University. Following the instructions of Section A. of the Notice of Academic Suspension I am writing a two-page essay in hopes of appealing the suspension. I am a Chemistry major with a minor in Biology and I am planning on going into the field of Pharmacy. Using CMU’s website, I learned that I needed a good foundation in the sciences to follow my career plans. I feel that I am more than capable to succeed in my chosen field of study and to remain at CMU. I take full responsibility for my inadequate GPA that I received. My first semester at CMU after transferring from Oakland Community College does not reflect my full academic capabilities, only a rough start.
My first fall semester at CMU was one of my worst academically, the classes I took were COM 101 which I received a C- in, MUS 114 finished with a B, BIO 203 finished with an E, and finally CHEM 131 which I dropped when I realized I fell to far behind. I feel that the material presented in the courses I took was not hard for me. After doing some reflection I realize what exactly helped to bring down my GPA. First is my study skills are horrid and almost non-existent, next is that I didn’t attend class nearly enough, and finally I didn’t take advantage of the many different academic aids provided like advisors, SI sessions, and my instructors and their assistants. Focusing on my study skills first, during my time in high school and community college I never found a need to study much, because of this my studying habits and skills were never developed.
I honestly don’t know how to study and a lot of times when I try to I always end up getting distracted. Next is my class attendance which was lacking heavily this semester. That mixed with low studying skills step me up for failure. I believe the main reason for my lack of attendance was due to the fact of early morning classes, somedays it was extremely hard for me to get out of bed in the morning on time enough to catch the bus to campus. I realize that is a poor excuse but it is the truth. Lastly is me not seeking aid, which in all honesty I never actually realized that I didn’t ask for help or anything of that nature. For as long as I can remember I never asked for help in school when I didn’t understand something and now I know that I have kept that bad habit up until last semester.
Over this break after receiving the notice of suspension I have reflected on myself to really understand how I ended up in this position. I eventually came to the conclusion that I wish to remain in college and I came up with an academic plan to repair my studying skills and GPA, to aid in my class attendance, and to utilize all the aid that is available to me.
Next semester I am planning on taking classes to complete my UP credits and most of my competencies. My earliest class starts at 12:30 PM so that I can easily wake up and go to class every day. In the way of studying habits I plan on forming study groups to help build my studying skills with the help of friends and classmates. I also have been researching ways of studying and have found that reviewing what was covered in class for 30 minutes right after class will help keep my mind fresh on the subject, and then later that day I will study for an hour for each class. I will utilize SI sessions and advisors that are available to me as well. With my new study habits, I will retake the BIO 203 class I failed and the Chem class I dropped in the Fall 2017 semester to repair my GPA. To maintain concentration with my academic goals I will meet regularly with a Success Coach to help guide me and maintain sight on my goals. I hope this has given insight on my struggle first semester and my plans to rectify my mistakes and I hope that you’ll give me the chance to.
@Rod5025 So, when you weren’t going to class and weren’t studying, what where you doing? Were you going out with friends, partying, etc.? If so, what are you doing to remove these influences? Honestly, I find some of your solutions to be impracticable. Part of college isn’t just doing the class work but learning how to prepare for life.
Your solution to not being able to wake up on time doesn’t show the level of maturity needed in the working world. What are you going to do when you have to be at a job at 8 am 5 days a week? Avoidance is not really a long term solution to that problem. I’ve had to terminate employees for tardiness because they just can’t figure out how to wake up and get to work on time.
On the study habits, you sound a lot like me. I had poor study habits as well and am an introvert and like to solve problems on my own and not seek help. You say you are going to form study groups but nothing in your first semester or prior academic career behavior suggest that you can do that. I like having someone to hold you accountable but who is that person going to be and how are you planning to find this “Success Coach”? When I did my MBA I had a mentor that I had weekly meetings with to go over my study plan and courses to make sure I was on track and it did help. My mentor was assigned to me as part of my program, I didn’t have to go seek one out. Sounds like you would need to find a mentor which could take some time.
One other question, did you have a warning from the school about the potential of suspension? If so, what did you do about it? If you did get a warning, can you show that you tried to address it?
Honestly, I don’t know if what you wrote would help you overturn the appeal but the fact that you are at least filing an appeal shows you are willing to try and improve.
I probably wouldn’t include the statement about not really studying in high school or community college. You basically are saying in that statement that you felt you could coast by like you always have. I also would strike the not being able to wake up on time and your solution of just starting classes later. I think it would be fine to make a comment about better time management around your classes and studies but avoid I can’t figure out how to wake up to meet my obligations.
I would stick to how you didn’t take full advantage of the resources available to you and how you plan to make better use of these resources. Office hours, tutors, etc. I would also build out your improvement plan in better details, can you put together an actual schedule of study times, around your potential class schedule.
"Using CMU’s website, I learned that I needed a good foundation in the sciences to follow my career plans"
I’d take this out… I mean, you needed to look on the website to see you needed a foundation in the sciences to be a pharmacist? It sounds like you really don’t know what you’re doing.
"I honestly don’t know how to study and a lot of times when I try to I always end up getting distracted. Next is my class attendance which was lacking heavily this semester. That mixed with low studying skills step me up for failure. I believe the main reason for my lack of attendance was due to the fact of early morning classes, somedays it was extremely hard for me to get out of bed in the morning on time enough to catch the bus to campus. I realize that is a poor excuse but it is the truth."
I know these are your real reasons, but they sound incredibly lame to me. Yeah, everyone wants to sleep late and not have responsibilities, that isn’t an excuse. I’d take out all of this and just focus on the fact that you didn’t know what resources were available, but now you do, and you have a plan to take advantage of it. Saying you liked sleeping late and thought you could get by without studying makes you sound immature and not like you have the outlook and habits needed for college.
My earliest class starts at 12:30 PM so that I can easily wake up and go to class every day.
Again, you’re focusing on the wrong thing. A solution is not “I’ll just take later classes!” A solution is “I will go to sleep earlier and turn waking up for my responsibilities into a priority.” What’s going to happen when you actually have a job? It won’t start at 12:30. Your college doesn’t want to hear that you’ll push back all your classes so you can continue to sleep late and avoid the responsibility.
I eventually came to the conclusion that I wish to remain in college
Sounds very halfhearted. As if you were thinking “ehhh maybe I should just drop out. I don’t know. Actually, yeah, I want to stay in college.”
It just sounds like it’s a lot of excuses that doesn’t really show a commitment to changing your attitude or habits. I think you need to find a new focus for the appeal, something that really shows you have the ability to significantly change.
I would cut it down by half. I’d leave out the part about scheduling all your classes after noon so that you’ll be able to get up on time and just say you will attend every class. If you have specific study groups you can attend, list those. List the classes you are going to take and how you will study for them.
If I were reviewing this appeal, I’d want some guarantee that you’d attend EVERY class not matter when it is scheduled. I never excused my kids from classes in high school, and they go to every class in college. Showing up is a big part of life. Your employers will expect you to show up before 12:45.
But it also seems as a Chem major you took COM (communications?), Music, Bio and CHem and you failed Bio and withdrew from Chem? Does not bode well.
In general, keep in mind what the college wants…they want students who can succeed. They need to know that you understand what the issue was, know now the resources that you can use, how the problems is resolved so you will not have academic issues in the future.
Also review the following and incorporate them into your future plans:
0) GO TO CLASS, BUY THE BOOK, READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!
Go to Professor’s office hours early in the semester and Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?”
If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.
Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.
Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch videos on line about the topic you are studying.
Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)
If things still are not going well, get a tutor.
7) Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.
If you feel you need to withdraw from a class, talk to your advisor as to which one might be the best …you may do better when you have less classes to focus on. But some classes may be pre-reqs and will mess your sequence of classes up.
For tests that you didn’t do well on, can you evaluate what went wrong? Did you never read that topic? Did you not do the homework for it? Do you kind of remember it but forgot what to do? Then next time change the way you study…there may be a study skill center at your college.
How much time outside of class do you spend studying/doing homework? It is generally expected that for each hour in class, you spend 2-3 outside doing homework. Treat this like a full time job.
At first, don’t spend too much time other things rather than school work. (sports, partying, rushing fraternities/sororities, video gaming etc etc)
If you run into any social/health/family troubles (you are sick, your parents are sick, someone died, broke up with boy/girlfriend, suddenly depressed/anxiety etcetc) then immediately go to the counseling center and talk to them. Talk to the dean of students about coordinating your classes…e.g. sometimes you can take a medical withdrawal. Or you could withdraw from a particular class to free up tim for the others. Sometimes you can take an incomplete if you are doing well and mostly finished the semester and suddenly get pneumonia/in a car accident (happened to me)…you can heal and take the final first thing the next semester. But talk to your adviser about that too.
At the beginning of the semester, read the syllabus for each class. It tells you what you will be doing and when tests/HW/papers are due. Put all of that in your calendar. The professor may remind you of things, but it is all there for you to see so take initiative and look at it.
Make sure you understand how to use your online class system…Login to it, read what there is for your classes, know how to upload assignments (if that is what the prof wants).
If you get an assignment…make sure to read the instructions and do all the tasks on the assignment. Look at the rubric and make sure you have covered everything.
If you are not sure what to do, go EARLY to the professors office hours…not the day before the assignment is due.
My father, my son, and I were all afflicted with this at times. If you think this might be an issue, try to address it head on, first by explaining the situation to your college, and also by immediately implementing some of the solutions. Feel free to message me if you need specific advice.
I don’t think this appeal is very effective. I think some time out and maybe proving yourself by taking some community college courses and/or working might help.
The only thing that could help is if there is a medical/psych. reason for your failure to make class, sleeping in, difficulty studying and so on. Have you ever been told you might have ADHD? Depression? Anxiety? Medical problem? If you have a condition and it is documented by a professional as part of your appeal, you might have a shot, because treatment can change your behavior.
I am not suggesting that you come up with a diagnosis. I am just saying that having a diagnosis is one instance where there is a shot at winning an appeal because there can be outside verification of plans for change by a professional therapist or doctor.
The way it is written,it sounds like the student just didn’t want to go to class because he was up playing video games and it was too much trouble to go to class. It reads as if the student will go to class if convenient and for next semester it will be convenient. But what about the next? Some classes are only offered in the morning, just like some jobs are only offered in the morning.
If someone has this condition, I’d expect it to be explained with support in the appeal. “I discovered I had a sleep phase disorder and I couldn’t function well in the morning and missed several classes. My doctor has recommended I schedule all classes later in the day. I have done so and I will attend every class.”