An Honest Academic Dismissal Appeal.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi all. I've posted one of these before in the past two weeks but i've whittled that version down into the one below. I've been recently dismissed from my university after my freshman year due to the fact that I had a poor GPA. Since then i've made a game plan with my advisor and am highly confident that i'll succeed if given the chance to come back. Please read my letter and critique it. What should I add, take out, or modify? If anyone has any advice on how to deal with this situation, I'm all ears. Everything in this letter is genuine.
Thank you</p>

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<pre><code> My name is_________. I have just potentially entered my sophomore year and I’ve been notified for academic dismissal due to my poor academic performance this past introductory year. I sincerely hope that you, the appeal staff, will consider this appeal to the fullest extent possible.

The first semester provided the issue of “new-found freedom.” I was a fish restricted to a bowl for the majority of my life and suddenly I was dropped into an ocean filled with a wealth of academic and social possibilities. Unfortunately, the social aspect made the rest of the experience take an unwarranted backseat and I ended the first semester with a poor (~1.6) GPA. I was notified over winter break that I was put on probation and, I did come back to the school with a drive to do better. The main issue with the last semester was my illnesses. I was sick very often as the provided medical correspondence can tell. Especially for the first few weeks, I was very incapacitated and unable to do work or go to class. My biggest fault was not working with my teachers regarding my illnesses but rather avoiding them only until I had gotten better at which point a decent amount of assignments and quizzes, while reasonably missed, were unable to be made up. After my sick period, things did pick up as I did rather decently in my English and Engineering courses and I even did well in many of the assignments in my other two classes. However, I still ended up failing those two classes. (Two F’s in chemistry and calculus 1B and a lower cumulative GPA ~1.55.)

When I found out about my final scores, I was truly devastated. I knew that I wasn’t dean’s list material this past semester but I would have never thought that I’d fail these two classes. I’ve never failed anything in my life. At that point I knew that I was going to be prompted to make this appeal so I started emailing my advisor__________ and came up with my own plan of rectification for this matter. This plan is going to require the upmost dedication out of me as it won’t be easy to enact but it is entirely
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<p>plausible and doable. If reinstated this coming semester, I shall retake the two courses I failed along with 3 other courses from my curriculum for total of about 20 credits. A schedule that consists of 5 classes that need time and attention would help me:
•have less time to be aloof. I’d always be doing something productive and not have my mind wander
•not have to make up as much ground as I’d progress further into my curriculum without having to backtrack too much
•get a higher GPA. Retaking and doing well in the two classes I failed along with doing well in the three other classes would not only give me a good term GPA but also bring back the cum GPA into a good place as well.
•better myself as a student. Time management is one skill that needs to honed every now and then. A schedule like this would help lay a great framework for me in my future endeavors at the university and beyond.
I’m already registered for classes at ________<strong><em>State University and
_</em></strong>___<strong><em>Community College this summer to help meet the pre-requisite of some of the courses I want to take for the Fall 2013 semester, if reinstated of course. Along with a full fall schedule, I’d also register for either an intersession or a summer session at a campus to not only finish catching up with my curriculum but also retake a course from freshman year that I feel that I can do completely better in than I did. I’ve already lined up a prospective job at the _</em></strong>_ Dining Hall for the following semester that would work with my schedule and help me fund the winter and summer sessions as I don’t want my parents paying for all of my mistakes. When I was told that I was on probation, Mr._________ reached out to me and offered me help. I shrugged away that incentive thinking that I didn’t need it. I can humiliatingly admit that I was wrong to not consult Mr._________. If allowed back, I will abide by any specific terms that are set for me and I will utilize all resources (such as the Q center, the academic achievement center and the School of Engineering tutoring center) generously provided by the university to better my academic standing. I myself have resolved to a personal condition to abide by where I’d meet with my professors and TA’s for a total of at least 4 hours a week to study or discuss any doubts that I have with the material. These sessions would be documented on paper and would be submitted to a person of your choosing so that there is physical evidence throughout the semester of me attempting to rectify my issue. </p>

<pre><code> I don’t want my time at the Univeristy of _______to end in such an abrupt and unfavorable way. I admit that I have made mistakes this past year but I’m more than willing to do everything possible to rectify them. I love this school and I’m proud to say I’m a student that goes here. I want to part ways with the school dressed in a black gown and a goofy hat with degree in tow, not with a dismissal due to the unfortunate way my freshman year turned out. I’m not willing to part ways with the school of Engineering either. I don’t want to change my major to make the work-load easier. I want to change myself to suit the major because I find it so interesting and wonderful.For this reason, I implore you to reconsider my dismissal from the University of _______. I have a great game-plan and with the help of the faculty as well as some considerable personal effort on my part, I’m highly confident that I can get back on the saddle and do wonderfully for the remaining three years of my undergraduate career and beyond.
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<p>Thank you for considering my appeal.</p>

<p>Sincerely,</p>

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2

<p>Way too long. Cut down by at least 50%. Also try to use more precise wording.</p>

3

<p>How about mine…I cant seem to make a new thread =/ </p>

<p>To whom it may concern:
I am writing this letter to appeal my academic dismissal from Rutgers University – Newark. First and foremost, I would like to apologize to the staff of the University for letting them down with my disappointing grades and if reinstated, I know I can do better and I would love to have the opportunity to prove it. I would also like to make it clear that when overlooking the past year, I understand that I am the one to blame for my poor grades and nobody else. I would like to explain my actions and how I ended up in the position I am in today.
They say that college is supposed to be the best time of your life and it turns out my first two semesters were the greatest time of my life. I must say that I was deep hurt after getting my dismissal email because I have worked hard all my life to get into Rutgers. Coming from Franklin Township where Rutgers Preparatory School was always a dream I’ve wanted to fulfill, Rutgers was basically my first and potentially, my only option growing up so close to New Brunswick. Although somewhat disappointed about not getting in to Rutgers –New Brunswick, I am glad that I ended up in Rutgers –Newark and have met all of the great people amongst the campus. Although my grades don’t reflect my passion for being here, I have been planning this the majority of my life. Have an older brother and an older sister that have not been to college, my parents depend on me to set the example for my younger sister and graduation from Rutgers Newark would definitely pave the way for her. My younger sister has already decided that she wants to go to Rutgers Newark, and getting kicked out would not help her goals at all.
In my junior year of high school I was diagnosed with chronic migraines, which subsided to episodic migraines when coming into my freshman year of college. Episodic migraines mean having headache pains for over four hours or sometimes even days, for at least 15 days a month. The triggers of these migraines that affect me are stress, sleep disturbances/ sleeping late (due to the rooming situation), and skipping meals (due to the odd dining hall hours) to say the least. I was admitted into the emergency room and given a certain set of pills to take, which I eventually became immune to –something that is not foreign for my body to do. Since then I have been told to see a neurologist which was nearly impossible due to the fact that I had to start college. Never being able to get the proper help I needed, my migraines increased and it became nearly impossible to study, sleep, or even get any work done. The neurologist that was assigned to me was only opened Monday-Thursday –the days that I had class. The first semester was extremely hard to overcome and to even have the zeal to go to class I had to take four Excedrin migraine pills every couple of hours if I planned to make it through the day.
If that wasn’t enough, during the fall semester I had to pick up a part time job at Jersey Gardens mall to help my parents pay for some bills. My parents paid for my tuition out of pocket and were having some difficulties to pay the mortgage after I left for school. My mother was also enrolled in college at the time getting her BSN in nursing. Every day I had to bear the thoughts of my parents struggling while I could barely get a C on my tests, I was very distracted and unable to complete my school work. Because I knew they needed help I took the hour long bus ride to Jersey Gardens Outlet mall as much as I could so my checks could benefit my parents as much as possible. This hour long ride cut into my study hours, but I believed college to be like highs school –if you went to class and paid attention you would pass. I was very wrong in believing so.<br>
In the spring semester I promised myself I would do better and kept my grades to myself knowing that I would make up for the semester that I basically failed. Little did I know that this semester would be riddled by death and sicknesses within my family. In the middle of the spring semester I found out that my very close Uncle has been diagnosed with cancer and is still alive today but only has a couple of days to live (effective now). This really devastated me because I spent entire summers when I was younger with him and I found myself taking the train down to Willingboro often to support the family. Although I should have probably taken a leave of absence I stayed thinking that I could pull my grades up under all of my stress.
Although the mandatory meetings for academic probation were not fun, I learned one thing from the meetings, I am afraid to succeed. Speaking to Dijah Allen helped me see that because of all the stress that my family has put on me to succeed, I am afraid that I will actually be successful. Looking back at my life I have noticed that she was completely correct. I am so afraid of doing bad that I end up doing bad and this is something that I have learned to overcome over the summer. To show that I am ready and fully committed to doing well this semester, I have been retaking my failed English 101 class and I am passing. I thought this would be hard to accomplish because I had to wake up at 7am just to make the drive to my 10:15 am class. This summer I have also dealt with the death of a very close friend, whom I considered a sister to me and that did not change my habits in class. I fell well prepared for the fall of 2013 and if given the chance I know I will succeed, I just need someone to believe in me. I have already purchased some of my fall books and began to read what I could so I would be ahead of class in the fall. I have also started new medication for my migraines and they have become none existent of the pass three weeks.
I now know that I cannot bear the weight of the world on my shoulders anymore and given the opportunity I hope that I can prove to you that I can and have changed. This dismissal letter has been my epiphany and I plan on showing the administration my R-U pride through my actions and not only my words. When I was six years old my grandmother was diagnosed and died of cancer, the attentiveness and the kindness of the staff was something that spoke to me deeply. The effect of being in the hospital was something that triggered an aspiration in me and this was something that my grandmother saw. One of the last conversations I remember having with her in the hospital was about being a doctor. Ever since then, I always knew what I wanted to do when I grew up. Although this should have been something I thought of constantly during the semester, I would hate to disappoint my grandmother by getting kicked out of Rutgers. My grades are a reflection of bad decisions and I now that I was able to readjust my lifestyle I am prepared for anything. When Rutgers accepted me they saw a potential in me that I didn’t see in myself, by allowing me another chance hopefully –if given another chance –I can show you why I am a great addition to the Rutgers family and out due the potential you once saw in me. Thank you for reconsidering me at Rutgers.</p>