<p>My father was diagnosed as epilepsy when he was a child. He is unable to work and cannot go outdoors alone. When the epilepsy occurs, he will lose his consciousness and may get hurt. It happens once or twice a month. So I have to spend a lot of time looking after him. After immigrating to America, my family financial situation became worse. I had to do part time job to support my family. This greatly affects my application and my academic performance. Therefore, I wish to appeal my decision.</p>
<p>Hey Myomoo! I’ve been seeing you around the forums a lot lately. =)</p>
<p>If you didn’t mention this case, this would be new and compelling information, so sure! If you already talked about it in your application, but not to great depth, I guess it wouldn’t hurt.</p>
<p>Be sure to emphasize the part that’s NEW and COMPELLING. Also mention how, despite these difficulties, you’ve managed to overcome them and are now using these struggles as motivation to succeed in school. Mention how well you’re doing in senior year, if you can (although don’t go into detail about grades).</p>
<p>Good luck with your appeal!</p>
<p>Hate to burst the bubble, but I dont think this is new or compelling seeing as he’s had the disorder since he was a child. This is the sort of thing you should have talked about in additional information, explaining how and why your academic performance was hurt by your dad’s condition/inability to work. Appeals are typically for special cases where in the months since applying you won a huge award, greatly improved your GPA or something else remarkable WITHIN that time frame, not that you simply remembered a reason why you hadn’t done well. Sorry! But if you insist, go ahead.</p>
<p>@Mkapur: No, you’re mistaken. New and compelling information can be ANYTHING that was not presented to the UC’s when you were applying. If you’re going to appeal, they want to know that you’re not just re-submitting the same application you sent before, hoping to get a nice person to re-evaluate your application. </p>
<p>They want ANYTHING that could have swayed the decision in November (Missing information) or ANYTHING that’s significant that happened since. You are correct that a huge improvement in grades or winning a BIG award is new and compelling, but that’s not the only new and compelling information that’s suitable for an appeal.</p>
<p>@Myomoo: I’ve read some of your other threads and noticed that you actually didn’t mention your father’s epilepsy at all. You should definitely appeal, using this information. However, make sure you write it in an interesting and sincere way. Don’t bore the admissions with a sob story. Rather, fascinate them by your struggles and success as a result.</p>
<p>Not to be a negative Nancy but if your father requires so much care how are you going to go away to college? If I was reading your appeal I would be wondering, if we admit will this person be able to stay at the college and excel. So these issues might need to be addressed in your appeal.</p>