If your appeal is not granted, what is your plan B. Unfortunately the school is going to look at it as you had 3 opportunities (4 semesters) to make your GPA requirement and you did not meet it it is a stretch to think that they will take this into a third year.
@sybbie719 - I need help making an appeal letter, not figuring out what to do if the appeal is not granted. If the appeal isn’t successful, then I’ll figure that out when that happens. Right now, I need to focus on doing everything I can to make the appeal successful, not pondering other options.
I admit that the best case scenario would have been to switch majors after the very first semester, then I wouldn’t have been in this spot in the first place. I most likely should have switched after the second semester. I genuinely thought that I could improve my GPA , so that’s why I didn’t switch until after my 3rd semester.
But again, suppose I did switch after my second semester and got a 3.5 GPA for both my fall and spring semesters of last year. My GPA would be ~3.0, and I’d still be stuck appealing because I was 0.1 lower. Would you still say that my appeal would likely not be successful and I should consider looking for other aid or transferring to another college?
Look, you had one decent semester but you aren’t out of the rough. Period. They don’t owe you anything after two full years of not meeting the target overall gpa.
" if I didn’t meet the requirement after the first year, then I would be placed on provisional status for the next year, and if I didn’t meet the requirement, then my aid would be terminated."
^ and that’s where you find yourself. Train’s left the station and you’re looking at the caboose.
I know kids can turn around. Some need time to grow. But your school gave you two full years of that money. They funded your “potential” when they offered this merit. Now theyre looking at your actual record.
You cant say, “But I had one decent semester” and expect them to swoon. The turnaround should have come last fall (if not the prev spring.) What were you thinking?
Your school has been extremely generous in giving you two years to meet your goa requirement. A lot of schools would gave just cut you off at the end of year one. I am that you are slowly getting on track. The reality is it is a stretch to think that they will just fund you junior year and if something goes wrong cut you lose senior year knowing that you would not have any real options. You need 2 years in residency to get your degree so the school will not put you in the position of having to transfer senior year.
If you must transfer, at least at least you have the opportunity to start your major at a new school hopefully wIthout a significant loss of credits.
@lookingforward - What was I thinking when I didn’t switch majors last fall? I was thinking that if I worked even harder in my work, then I could turn it around… I was doing well in my chemistry class during freshman year, so I could translate that into more success in organic chemistry sophomore year and turn it around. I spent many nights staying up until 1-2AM slaving away, going to help sessions, taking tutoring, doing everything that I could, so that I could do well.
After that didn’t pay off as well as I wanted to, and after seeing that molecular cell biology focused too much on rote memorization, even more than regular biology, and after realizing towards the end of the last fall semester that sometimes no matter how hard you work, it’s not enough, and you need to apply your efforts in a different direction, I switched.
Finally, I was thinking at the start of the last fall semester that if I couldn’t become a doctor, then what was I worth? It was due to social expectations that I didn’t switch until later, and also after finding out more about computer science, and standing up for myself against others, that I decided to switch. If I deserve to be punished for not giving up on something, then yes, I deserve to be punished.
But I made this thread to seek help to make this appeal successful, and most of the comments here have been telling me that it’s not worth appealing because my GPA is irredeemable, just when I’m starting to improve. If that’s what people think, then fine, its not worth appealing. Happy yet?
@sybbie719 - I am aware that it is a stretch, but it’s not impossible. I’m trying to seize that chance no matter how small, but after seeing the amount of comments saying that it’s not worth appealing and that I should just give up, I’ll probably ask for help elsewhere.
Nobody said give up. They said make sure you have a Plan B.
@Leon5689 I think you are being very defensive. People are just trying to help you. What we are trying to tell you is that no matter how well-constructed your appeal letter, you must prepare for a rejection. Your appeal letter is fairly well-constructed, and will be even better with the tips you received from @RoaringMice. There is nothing else you can do at this point to make your appeal successful. There is no harm in sending it.
But you need to get a back-up plan in place immediately, because in all likelihood, they will reject the appeal. If they accept it, then you have a happy surprise and you won’t need to use your back-up plan.
It is not a question of deserving to be punished. When you accepted your merit award, you agreed to conditions, and you didn’t meet them. It’s good that you tried, but part of life IS learning to change direction when something isn’t working. It’s good you learned that lesson now, but the committee will probably think you learned it too late.
@bodangles - I know, but that’s not even relevant to trying to improve an appeal letter.
@glittervine - I know people are trying to help, I’ve just been trying to steer it back to improving my letter. It was only in a couple of posts ago where I got defensive.
Back to your letter. Just get to the point in it. Remember…the folks reading these letters are reading a LOT of them…not just yours. You want to hit the important points…and cut out the other stuff.
- What happened?
- What have you done to correct the grade situation?
- What will you continue to do?
No wishful thinking, no extra info…just the bullets. Write your letter and submit it…but have a plan B. This could be transferring to a less costly school, taking a gap year and working, or simply paying for your last two year of college where you are if your scholarship can’t be reinstated.
But ‘what happened’ isn’t a rehash of your failings-- which they already know or they wouldn’t have taken action. They want to see your thinking, the level of thinking they can trust.
And what you’ve done to correct it is not a flat statement that you did better one semester. They want to see you know what it actually takes to get out of the hole and actually did X, Y, Z.
And “I will” is always more believable when you can show you already started these specific changes. Not “I will study hard and get A’s,” but, “In CS, I took advantage of study groups and lab support, blah, blah” and will continue.
I suggested you think of how to show well in this letter and you said you don’t know how. Why did you stick with it? Not, “I thought my grades would improve.”