Hey guys, please read over this and let me know how it looks and offer constructive criticism PLEASE! I am a 4.5 yr senior with some time left in school and becasue of SAP i didnt get fin aid this semester this is my first appeal and everything in this is actually true. If there is a way to word it different becausae lack of documentation for certain items then let me know!
To whom it may concern,
I am writing this letter to accompany my documentation for an SAP Appeal for the Spring 2015 semester. My KSU ID number is 000511346. As of Fall 2014, my current SAP GPA is a 1.92, which puts me .08 points below the required 2.0. As a college student one thing we are supposed to learn is how to multitask and deal with different problems throughout our lives, and still perform at the best of our abilities. My attempt at this in the past has been less than optimal because of my inability to focus on one thing at a time. After I transferred to my third school (Kennesaw State) I had my life under control and I was feeling confident that I would start fresh at Kennesaw and begin to succeed as I did in high school. Then personal problems began, and my focus was not directed towards my studies as it should have been. Due to financial hardships in the economy I had to get a part time job to continue to live a typical college lifestyle. Although this is not an excuse for poor academic performance it just added another thing to my already full plate.
As I began to neglect my social life and try to focus strictly on my studies and a job, I began having family and car troubles. As a result of having ongoing major problems with the primary means of transportation, for both my sister and I, I had no choice but to pick up more hours at work.
At home I was starting to have family issues, with my parents being legally separated but still living in the same household, naturally my attention to things that should have taken precedence, such as school and work, now seemed less of a priority compared to the hardships I was dealing with back home. This would be anything from staying on the phone for hours with a parent letting them vent to driving down to Fayetteville in the middle of the night to make sure everything was okay. Just being the oldest of two siblings, I have a responsibility to be there whenever my sister needs me. There were times when I would have to leave my apartment or work to ensure the physical and mental well-being of the most important person in my life. As much as I would like to elaborate on the extent of my family issues, some are extremely personal and I would rather not disclose them, such as health issues and even a recent mental hospitalization, even though they could help my appeal. Unfortunately, I had to make a decision and my family and work came first and school came second.
I have been in constant contact with my advisor, Hannah Santoro, throughout the entire Fall semester. I expressed my concerns, and we came up with an action plan to not only increase my adjusted GPA but also to establish a more productive work ethic. This is the final part of my appeal, and it will solely consist of my action plan and why I think I should stay in school. I haven’t just written this letter in hopes that I get my appeal, I have written this letter to prove to the university as well as myself that I am capable of succeeding at the collegiate level. Though not dedicated in the past, I now have goals and plans that include everything from, a written plan of the rest of my academic tenure here at KSU , to a budget to properly handle my financial assets, down to the medial tasks that have made the past month and a half of my life so much more productive than its ever been. One final thing I would like to say is I was put on academic suspension because of a grade error which was overturned, but the fact that I was possibly out of school for at least a year terrified me, and as a result motivated me to perform at a much higher level thus far in the semester (even though it is still early).
If the appeals committee grants the decision to overturn my Financial Aid decision, I will not take advantage of my final opportunity to show my academic abilities to the university.