HELP, can someone read my college dismissal appeal letter

Applying to College
1

Just looking for some input right now. The school sent me a letter telling me to number the 4 issues and so far this is what I got. Thank you for your help!! :slight_smile:

Date

Name
Address

Dear Committee on Academic Standing:

I am writing to you this letter to appeal my letter of dismissal from the University of XXX, and to please consider reinstating me for the next semester. In this letter I will explain the extenuating circumstances that contributed to me failing to meet the minimum grade point average requirements, and will clarify what steps I am currently taking in order to achieve success at this university and in life.

  1. Extenuating Circumstances Over the past year, I have been in the middle of an ongoing effort to keep my family together and to see the people I love happy. After years of being happy together, my parents became distant from one another and began to fight very frequently. My dad became obsessed with his work while my mom kept to herself, locking herself in her room night after night. Just as this situation was happening, my grandfather (father’s side) became diagnosed with stage 3 cancer, causing my father to go into a depression. Being so stressed out over what was happening with my mother and his father, my dad decided that moving out of the house was his best option and my parents soon became estranged. This event, along with numerous phone calls from my younger siblings to help resolve the issues at home, urged me to make numerous trips during the school year to my house on XXX to try and solve problems that weren’t my own causing me to miss vital days and hours that I could have been using to study and find resources to obtain a high overall GPA. I felt pressured to be the man of the house. Fixing things around the house became an every-day occurrence, as well as making sure my siblings were staying out of trouble, and keeping up with my grandfather’s condition. I was constantly consulting my mother, working with her mental breakdowns and trying to get her out of the house as much as possible. Even when I was at school I was very distracted with the home situation and it became very hard to juggle between my school and home priorities. I only now realized that I should have communicated with my professors and used the various amounts of on-campus help centers and even my own advisor, instead of avoiding them and managing everything by myself. These events were the underlying factors to what contributed to me failing to meet the minimum grade requirement but I feel that the most important thing that attributed to it was my senseless mentality of taking on other people’s problems and to keep all of those problems to myself. I now know that I cannot fully blame extenuating circumstances on my academics but rather blame myself for how I dealt with those circumstances. I had multiple ways of dealing with my at-home situation smoother, but unfortunately my judgment became very clouded when dealing with the problems in my family. My past-self was determined to fix everything by myself without seeking the help of others, especially trained professionals. This juggling of my own priorities such as school and my family’s problems put an ample amount of stress on me and holding all of that weight had caused me to fail in both aspects miserably.
  2. Steps to Success

Moving forward, my life has seen recent changes.
In terms of my family life, my grandfather’s cancer is in remission and his health is improving. My father has moved back into the house, my parents are in marriage counselling, and in certain aspects seem happier than they were before. I also feel that if such adverse situations were to arise again that I will be able to cope with them much differently. By seeking therapy, I have found the tools to use to handle my problems without letting them overtake my main responsibilities and cloud my focus to achieve my goals in life. After a session with my new therapist I now feel more directed in life in terms of what responsibilities take priority over others, and am confident that I will have a very successful future.
Academically my plan looks as followed: My main priority as of right now is to receive my B.A. in Economics with a minor in Business. Obtaining this degree will give me the acquired knowledge that I will need to get a job in the economics field where I will one day be a compensation and benefits manager. I love economics and enjoy it immensely. To reach this goal my next semester will include me retaking Statistics (Since I received a D), BITM (Since I received a C-), Intermediate Economics, Economics of Development, and The Hollywood Crime Film. My goal for next semester is to get a GPA of a 3.0 or higher. This will raise my total amount of credits to 54 and will raise my cumulative GPA to above a 2.0. After next semester I will also enroll in two summer classes in order to further advance my credits and GPA. Along with taking the classes, I have been accepted for a summer internship for a company in their sales and marketing department. I believe that this is a huge opportunity for me and interning will grant me a great experience into the world of business. I have made many mistakes regarding my academics at the University of XXX-- all of which I will not be doing that again. I am taking all responsibilities for my actions and am going to make it my only priority to raise my GPA and graduate so that I can become as successful as I possibly can.

  1. Transcript Errors Since the transcript for last semester has been put out, there have been two changes that are to be made to my grades. My Statistics grade has been changed from an “E”, to a “D”. My Macroeconomics grade has been changed from a “C+”, to a “B-“. These changes are documented through emails between my professors and I in a separate attachment.
  2. Resolve Incomplete (“I”) grades I have not received any Incomplete grades over the past year.

Thank you for taking the time to review my appeal. Please email me back if you have any questions.

2

Please scroll through the first couple of pages of recent posts. Two others have posted with the same problem, and they have been given many good suggestions. You can apply these tips to your own letter, which is very long. Get to the point: I screwed up, I regret it. Here were the circumstances (be brief, you don’t want to sound like you are giving a list of excuses.) Be concise about your steps to reform. Apologize, and mean it. Good luck to you.

3

@Lindagaf thank you for your response. I read a couple of other posts but if anyone can point out any direct parts hat I should include/exclude please let me know thank you!

4

Shorter. The school doesn’t care about the family problems, other than “I experienced some personal family problems, and this cost me time from studying.”

Shorter.

Focus on what your are going to change to be successful.

5

I tried to cut out as much as I could by deleting details to my situation. This is what I have now after a little revision.

Dear Committee on Academic Standing:

I am writing to you this letter to appeal my letter of dismissal from the University XXX, and to please consider reinstating me for the next semester. In this letter I will explain the extenuating circumstances that contributed to me failing to meet the minimum grade point average requirements, and will clarify what steps I am currently taking in order to achieve success at this university and in life.

  1. Extenuating Circumstances As a disclaimer, I would first like to start off by saying these circumstances are not an excuse. I put myself in this situation and, although the circumstances were severe, I take full responsibility for my failure to meet an acceptable grade requirement. That being said, over the past year I have been in the middle of an ongoing effort to keep my family together. After years of being happy together, my parents began to fight immensely. Just as this situation was happening, my grandfather (father’s side) became diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer, causing my father to go into a depression, and ultimately resulting in him moving out. Even when I was at school I was very distracted with the home situation and it became very hard to juggle between my school and home priorities. As of June 2015, The University XXX sent me a letter that I was on terminal probation after the spring semester of 2015. This was right in the middle of my father abandoning my family at home. I then promised myself to do better than the semester prior while going into my junior year. However, with the complete absence of my father, things got hard again and, though I tried what I thought was my hardest, I could have done better. What I now realize is that I should have communicated with my professors and used the various amounts of on-campus help centers and even my own advisor, instead of avoiding them and trying to manage everything by myself. These events were the underlying factors to what contributed to me failing to meet the minimum grade requirement; however, I feel that the most important thing that attributed to it was my senseless mentality of trying to take full care for my family while telling myself I’ll still do good in school. I realize that I cannot use my situation as an excuse for how I poorly I did in school but rather take blame for how I dealt with those circumstances. I had multiple ways of dealing with situation at home smoother, but unfortunately my judgment became very clouded when dealing with the problems in my family. I truly regret my past decisions and can only look forward onto how I am going to fix them.
  2. Steps to Success

Moving forward, my life has seen recent changes.
In terms of my family life, my father has moved back into the house, my parents are in marriage counselling, and my grandfather’s cancer is now in remission. By seeking therapy, I have found the tools to use to handle my problems without letting them overtake my main responsibilities and cloud my focus to achieve my goals in life. After a session with my new therapist I now feel directed in life in terms of what responsibilities take priority over others, and am confident that I will have a very successful future. I truly want to succeed at the University XXX and believe I can turn my academics around.
Academically my plan looks as followed: My main priority as of right now is to receive my B.A. in Economics with a minor in Business. Obtaining this degree will give me the acquired knowledge that I will need to get a job in the economics field where I plan to one day be a Chief Financial Officer at a big firm. To reach this goal my next semester will include me retaking Statistics (Since I received a D), BITM (Since I received a C-), Intermediate Economics, Economics of Development, and The Hollywood Crime Film. My goal for next semester is to get a GPA of a 3.0 or higher. This will raise my total amount of credits to 54 and will raise my cumulative GPA to above a 2.0. After next semester I will also enroll in two summer classes online through the University and one through my local Suffolk community college in order to further advance my credits and GPA. Along with taking the classes, I have been accepted for a summer internship for a company in their sales and marketing department. I believe that this is a huge opportunity for me and interning will grant me a great experience into the world of business. I have made many mistakes regarding my academics at the University XXX-- all of which I will not be doing again. I am taking all responsibilities for my actions and am going to make it my only priority to raise my GPA and graduate so that I can become as successful as I possibly can.

  1. Transcript Errors Since the transcript for last semester has been put out, there have been two changes that are to be made to my grades. My Statistics grade has been changed from an “E”, to a “D”. My Macroeconomics grade has been changed from a “C+”, to a “B-“. This would raise my fall semester grade to a 1.78. These changes are documented through emails between my professors and I in a separate attachment.
  2. Resolve Incomplete (“I”) grades I have not received any Incomplete grades over the past year.

    Thank you for taking the time to review my appeal. Please email me back if you have any questions.

6

Also, would it be a good idea to stress that I am a 3rd year student and how I think of the school as a second home to me?

7

I am writing to you this letter to…
*I am writing to you to…

I am writing to you this letter to appeal my letter of dismissal from the University XXX, and to please consider reinstating me for the next semester.
If you’re “writing to them to appeal” – appealing being something YOU do – you can’t also be writing to them to consider, because the considering is something THEY do. It doesn’t make sense grammatically.
*I am writing to you to appeal my letter of dismissal from the University XXX. I hope you will consider reinstating me for the upcoming semester.

In this letter I will explain the extenuating circumstances that contributed to me failing to meet the minimum grade point average requirements, and will clarify what steps I am currently taking in order to achieve success at this university and in life.
In essays you never state “This is what my paper is about.” I’d assume the same rule should apply here. It just sounds juvenile. I’d rephrase your entire first paragraph something like this:

I am writing to you to appeal my letter of dismissal from the University XXX. I hope you will consider reinstating me for the upcoming semester. I experienced extenuating circumstances this past semester that made it difficult for me to meet the minimum grade point average requirements. However, I am now taking proactive steps in order to get back on track and achieve the success I know I am capable of.

  • Be right back, this is tough on mobile
8

After years of being happy together…
I feel kind of uncomfortable reading this. It’s extremely personal, maybe verging on too much.

After years of being happy together, my parents began to fight immensely. Just as this situation was happening, my grandfather (father’s side) became diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer, causing my father to go into a depression, and ultimately resulting in him moving out.
*My family was already experiencing tension when my grandfather was diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer, causing my father to go into a depression and eventually move out.

However, with the complete absence of my father, things got hard again and, though I tried what I thought was my hardest, I could have done better.
What do you mean, “Things got hard again”? That’s very vague.

What I now realize is that I should have communicated with my professors and used the various amounts of on-campus help centers and even my own advisor, instead of avoiding them and trying to manage everything by myself.
*various on-campus help centers and my own advisor
(“Amount” is for things that can’t be counted)

These events were the underlying factors to what contributed to me failing to meet the minimum grade requirement;
*These events were the underlying factors in my failure to meet the minimum grade requirement;

however, I feel that the most important thing that attributed to it was my senseless mentality of trying to take full care for my family while telling myself I’ll still do good in school.
*however, I feel that the most important reason was my determination to shoulder both my family’s responsibilities and my own. My attention was divided, instead of focused solely on school, and my grades suffered as a result.
(It’s “do well,” btw)

I realize that I cannot use my situation as an excuse for how I poorly I did in school but rather take blame for how I dealt with those circumstances.
*I realize that I cannot use my situation as an excuse for how I poorly I did in school; I take full responsibility for how I dealt with those circumstances.

I had multiple ways of dealing with situation at home smoother, but unfortunately my judgment became very clouded when dealing with the problems in my family.
*I see now that there were multiple ways in which I could have dealt more easily with my home situation and balanced it with my schoolwork, but unfortunately my worries about my family clouded my judgment.

After a session with my new therapist
Only one??

my plan looks as followed
*as follows

My main priority as of right now is to receive my B.A. in Economics with a minor in Business. Obtaining this degree will give me the acquired knowledge that I will need to get a job in the economics field where I plan to one day be a Chief Financial Officer at a big firm.
Do they really care about this? I’d start right off with the IMMEDIATE plan. Right now this just seems like a pie-in-the-sky dream with no real evidence to back it up.

To reach this goal my next semester will include me retaking Statistics (Since I received a D), BITM (Since I received a C-), Intermediate Economics, Economics of Development, and The Hollywood Crime Film.
*To reach this goal my next semester will include me retaking Statistics, since I received a D, and BITM, since I received a C-. I will also be taking Intermediate Economics, Economics of Development, and The Hollywood Crime Film.

My goal for next semester is to get a GPA of a 3.0 or higher.
HOW?? Why should they believe you? You already admitted that you ignored all of the help available to you, and you don’t address taking more advantage of that help this semester. How do they know you won’t do it again? Give concrete details. (“I have scheduled an appointment with my advisor to discuss strategies for retaking these classes I struggled with last semester.”)

This will raise my total amount of credits to 54 and will raise my cumulative GPA to above a 2.0.
IF you can do it, sure, but you don’t have proof for that. I wouldn’t act like it’s a done deal.

After next semester I will also enroll in two summer classes online through the University and one through my local Suffolk community college in order to further advance my credits and GPA
How do you plan to prioritize these online classes, which would be all-too-easy to set aside if your familial situation gets rough again?

Along with taking the classes, I have been accepted for a summer internship for a company in their sales and marketing department.
You don’t have to give the details to us here, but give the details to the university. Might lend some legitimacy to your argument.

Transcript Errors
Were these actually “errors”? Why were these grades changed?

This would raise my fall semester grade
*fall semester GPA

Please email me back if you have any questions.
This seems a bit weird as a closer to me, but I’m not sure what I would replace it with.

9

@bodangles thank you for the input. I used it and revised my appeal. It now looks like this:

Dear Committee on Academic Standing:

I am writing to you to appeal my letter of dismissal from the University XXX. I hope you will consider reinstating me for the upcoming semester. I experienced extenuating circumstances this past semester that made it difficult for me to meet the minimum grade point average requirements. However, I am now taking proactive steps in order to get back on track and achieve the success I know I am capable of.

  1. Extenuating Circumstances As a disclaimer, I would first like to start off by saying these circumstances are not an excuse. I put myself in this situation and, although the circumstances were severe, I take full responsibility for my failure to meet an acceptable grade requirement. That being said, over the past year I have been in the middle of an ongoing effort to keep my family together. My family was already experiencing tension when my grandfather was diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer. This caused my father to go into a depression, and eventually move out of the house. Even when I was at school I was very distracted with the home situation and it became very hard to juggle between my school and home priorities. As of June 2015, The University XXX sent me a letter that I was on terminal probation after the spring semester of 2015. This was right in the middle of my father abandoning my family at home. I then promised myself to do better than the semester prior while going into my junior year. However, with the complete absence of my father, I felt the need to take over his responsibilities of the house while being away at school. This was extremely difficult for me to do and it shows on my transcript. What I now realize is that I should have communicated with my professors and used the various on-campus help centers and even my own advisor, instead of avoiding them and trying to manage everything by myself. These events were the underlying factors in my failure to meet the minimum requirement; however, I feel that the most important reason was my determination to shoulder both my family’s responsibilities and my own. My attention was divided, instead of focused solely on school, and my grades suffered as a result. I realize that I cannot use my situation as an excuse for how I poorly I did in school and I take full responsibility for how I dealt with those circumstances. I see now that there were multiple ways in which I could have dealt more easily with my home situation and balanced it with my schoolwork without letting outside situations cloud my judgment.
  2. Steps to Success Moving forward, my life has seen recent changes. In terms of my family life, my father has moved back into the house, my parents are in marriage counselling, and my grandfather’s cancer is now in remission. By seeking therapy, I have found the tools to use to handle my problems without letting them overtake my main responsibilities and cloud my focus to achieve my goals in life. After a recent session with my new therapist where we discussed the dismissal situation, I now feel directed in life in terms of what responsibilities take priority over others, and have a follow-up appointment set for January XX. I truly want to succeed at the UniversityXXX and believe I can turn my academics around. Academically my plan looks as follows: My main priority as of right now is to receive my B.A. in Economics with a minor in Business. To achieve this my first step would be to improve my GPA by setting aside a structured, consistent block of time on a daily basis to be used for studying and doing homework. If I find myself struggling I will make arrangements to use on-campus resources, such as the Writing Center, to help me understand the material better. Another step will be to actively pursue extra credit assignments and spend more time reviewing class/lecture notes. To reach this goal my next semester will include me taking Introduction to Human Evolution, The Hollywood Crime and Film, Economics of Development, Contemporary Economic Issues, and Reading Literature. My goal for next semester is to get a GPA of a 3.0 or higher. In order to make sure I am always sticking to my game plan, I have scheduled a walk-in appointment with my advisor for the first week of classes and will schedule follow-up appointments every 2-3 weeks. By following this plan, I intend to raise my total amount of credits to 57 and will raise my cumulative GPA to above a 2.0. After next semester I will also enroll in two summer classes online through the University and one through my local community college in order to further advance my credits and GPA. These classes will be my main priority in the summer along with becoming an intern to a company I’ve recently been accepted to. I believe that this is a huge opportunity for me and interning will grant me a great experience into the world of business. I have made many mistakes regarding my academics at the University XXX-- all of which I will not be doing again. I am taking all responsibilities for my actions and am going to make it my only priority to raise my GPA and graduate so that I can become as successful as I possibly can.
  3. Transcript Errors Since the transcript for last semester has been put out, there have been two changes that are to be made to my grades. My Statistics grade has been changed from an “E”, to a “D”. This was due to my professor misplacing my final exam and then finding it. My Macroeconomics grade has been changed from a “C+”, to a “B-“. This was a result of an error my professor made in the processing of final grades. These changes would raise my fall semester GPA to a XXX and are documented through emails between my professors and I in a separate attachment.
  4. Resolve Incomplete (“I”) grades I have not received any Incomplete grades over the past year.

Attending the University XXX has been a privilege for the past 3 years and If I am given a second chance I am positive that I will succeed. I am determined to seize any opportunity of another chance to do well and leave this University with a diploma of graduation, not a letter of dismissal.

Thank you,
XXXXXX

10

So i’ve been looking at some other dismissals and I used them to cut my dismissal by a 1/2 of what I wrote before. I think this one gets more to the point but can still use some help. I plan on sending this in by 8am tomorrow morning so any help would be appreciated thank you!!

Dear Academic Standing Committee,

I recently received your letter regarding academic dismissal. Please reconsider dismissing me from the University XXX. I take full responsibility for my academic performance over the past year and am now focused on taking proactive steps in order to get back on track and achieve success.

  1. Extenuating Circumstances Throughout the past year, I have been in an ongoing effort to keep my family together and see the people I love happy. My parents were fighting so frequently that it came to a point where my father decided to move out of my house. This, along with my grandfather contracting Stage 3 Lung Cancer, kept my mind away from school and focused towards my life at home. With the complete absence of my father, I felt the need to take over his responsibilities of the house and I found myself worrying more about my family life, rather than my schoolwork.

Moving forward, my life has seen recent changes. In terms of my family life, my father has moved back into the house, my parents are in marriage counselling, and my grandfather’s cancer is now in remission. By seeking therapy, I have found the tools to use to handle my problems without letting them overtake my own responsibilities. After a recent session with my new therapist where we discussed the dismissal situation, I now feel directed in life in terms of what responsibilities take priority over others, and I have scheduled a follow-up appointment for January 12th.

  1. Steps to Success Academically my plan looks as follows: My main priority as of right now is to receive my B.A. in Economics with a minor in Business. To achieve this my first step would be to improve my GPA by setting aside a structured, consistent block of time on a daily basis to be used for studying and doing homework. If I find myself struggling I will make arrangements to use on-campus resources, such as the Writing Center, to help me understand the material better. Another step will be to actively pursue extra credit assignments and spend more time reviewing class/lecture notes. To reach this goal my next semester schedule will include me taking Introduction to Human Evolution, The Hollywood Crime and Film, Economics of Development, Contemporary Economic Issues, and Reading Literature. My goal for next semester is to get a GPA of a 3.0 or higher. In order to make sure I am always sticking to my game plan, I have scheduled a walk-in appointment with my advisor for the first week of classes and will schedule follow-up appointments every 2-3 weeks. By following this plan, I intend to raise my total amount of credits to 57 and will raise my cumulative GPA to above a 2.0.

After next semester I will also enroll in two summer classes online through the University and one through my local XXX community college in order to further advance my credits and GPA. These classes will be my main priority in the summer along with becoming an intern to a company I’ve recently been accepted to. I believe that this is a huge opportunity for me and interning will grant me a great experience into the world of business. I have made many mistakes regarding my academics at the University at XXX-- all of which I will not be doing again. I am taking all responsibilities for my actions and am going to make it my only priority to raise my GPA and graduate so that I can become as successful as I possibly can.

  1. Since the transcript for last semester has been put out, there have been two changes that are to be made to my grades. My Statistics grade has been changed from an “E”, to a “D”. This was due to my professor misplacing my final exam and then finding it. My Macroeconomics grade has been changed from a “C+”, to a “B-“. This was a result of an error my professor made in the processing of final grades. These changes would raise my fall semester GPA to a 1.78 and are documented through emails between my professors and I in a separate attachment.
  2. Incomplete "I" grades I did not receive any "I" grades over the past year.

Attending the University XXX has been a privilege for the past 3 years and If I am given a second chance I am positive that I will succeed. I am determined to seize any opportunity of another chance to do well and leave this University with a diploma of graduation, not a letter of dismissal.

Thank you for your time.

11

Just a reminder: the appeal must respond to the four questions and each question must be numbered.

12

This has improved greatly. Good luck!