I need constructive criticism on my appeal letter

Parents Forum
1

Although I have not received my email, I know its going to come soon and I’m playing the waiting game. I don’t have any “good” excuses either other then I was stressed which made me complacent which make me fail (F) a class and almost fail another (D), my third was better with a B-. I’m so sorry for the long post but I read that accepted appeals were more on the longer side.

Requirements that I found I need:

*In your first paragraph, indicate why you are appealing the disqualification

  • Your second paragraph should include everything that happened to you the last one or two quarters, including how many hours a week you studied, worked, and any adjustments or personal issues that would help us in assessing your appeal. Be as specific as possible.
  • The third paragraph should include what spring quarter courses you are enrolled in and what isgoing to change in your life to meet the academic demands of university life. How many hours a week do you plan to study? Include a completed 7-day schedule, filled out with your classes and their times, study times (specifically what you will study and when), work hours (if you must work), sleep, family obligations, and fun. Make sure you keep a copy of this schedule to bring to your disqualification appointment.
  • Fourth paragraph should clearly explain why you should be allowed to continue your studies here at X for another quarter.

7-day schedule: (I didn’t censor the classes because several colleges and I put an extra space between // and postimg since I can’t post links so either delete the space of copy from postimg onwards)
https:// postimg.cc/0MW0kvCY

To the Associate Dean X,

I’m writing this letter as an appeal to my academic disqualification from X. I take full responsibility for my actions that have led to a quarter GPA of lower than 1.5. This quarter was mentally exhausting for me and all I ask is to be given another chance to prove my academic prowess and success at X.

This quarter was mentally draining in several aspects. My aunt and grandfather contracted COVID-19 mid-quarter. They live across the world so all we can do is call them strictly in the morning or at night due to the vast difference in time zones. The area they live in is not as hygienic and well developed in comparison to the United States so their contraction of COVID-19 was very concerning. My great grandmother is also on her deathbed and that has greatly affected both me and my parents. She was a role model to not only my mother but to me. I have had two friends who have confided with me about their suicidal thoughts, one of whom is dependent on me for advice and consolation. I have also been dealing with religious insecurities and also had apartment issues for the past quarter and summer such as: gaining a lease, having acceptable documents for the leasing company, and miscommunication issues between the leasing company and the utility company resulting in late fees for us. These events have caused me to be seriously unmotivated to focus on my studies this quarter because of my stress and anxiety.

During this winter break, I have reflected on my poor decisions and have constructed a plan to achieve both mental happiness and academic success. I know as a student that I should at minimum be investing three hours a week, a total of nine hours a week, on each subject I am taking. However, I only spent about four to five hours a week excluding lectures and discussions. I never focused entirely on discussions and lectures, I always assumed that I would understand the material later, and I even hoped the classes would be curved. My lack of motivation resulted in complacency and ultimately landed me in this dire situation. However, this mindset is unacceptable and will be detrimental to my academic career and in the general future. I look back at the breakdown of my grades and realize that the only reason why I also did not fail Math 120A was because there was less weight on exams in comparison to Math 121A. Math 120A had a 65% weight on exams, 25% for the midterm, and 40% for the final, for which I received an average of 40%. As for 120A, I had a 55% weight on exams, 25% for the midterm, and 35% for the exam, in which I received an average of 55%. Although both are failing grades, my higher score in Math 120A was enough to barely pass. My poor results highlight my lack of understanding of the material. Therefore, I plan to address this issue next quarter and not continue assuming that I understand the material when I truly do not. During the winter quarter, I plan to take Math 162A, Math 10, and retake Math 121A. I have completed a 7-day schedule plan that I have attached to this email detailing my class and study schedule. I have made a repetitive schedule to ensure I build a routine to lead to academic success. I have reserved nine to ten hours a week for each subject that I am taking next quarter. I plan to attend at least one office hour a week for each class and also find a classmate to study with. I have also reviewed six modules during the break on both Math 162A and Math 121A concepts offered by the math department to prepare for the next quarter and reviewed the syllabus for Math 162A. As for my mental happiness, I will make an appointment with the X Counselor Center when they reopen on January 4th to talk about how I can resolve my anxiety about my friends, family, and religious insecurities. Relieving my anxiety is important in addressing the issues of my mental mindset to completely ensure my long term academic success.

I had two weeks to deeply think about how I reached this point of being disqualified from X. I am deeply ashamed and disappointed with my academic performance this quarter. I take full responsibility and completely acknowledge that I made the severe mistake of not recognizing how my mental mindset could affect my academic performance so detrimentally. Throughout the quarter I continuously ignored the red flags of receiving unsatisfactory results. The adverse results are the cultivation of my negligence and I plead that I have one quarter to prove that I deserve to be a student at X. From this point onward I will never take the privilege of being able to study at X for granted. This past quarter is not a representation of my academic career and I now have a strong motivation to prove it. I realized that the mindset of achieving average results will only ever result in average or unsatisfactory results. Therefore, from this day onwards, I pledge to achieve a grade of B or higher for any class grade. I must strive for excellent results to achieve them and I ask for one quarter to prove that.

Sincerely,
X

2

I’m wondering if your plan to take three math courses in one semester makes sense. I don’t think any advisor would encourage this.

Now that you have a draft, you can easily shorten it. I would get rid of the mentions of religious insecurities as you are unlikely to be able to resolve this by January. The discussion of the relatives with Covid can just be one sentence.
Good luck!

3

Way too long!
They know you messed up, that’s why you were dismissed.

Everyone has been affected by mental health issues this year, especially with the Covid barriers. You need to write that you had “close” family members in other parts of the world that were affected and that one family member passed away. That’s it Keep it succinct. You mention friends affecting your coursework, housing issues affecting your coursework, non-motivation affecting coursework, so they will wonder why you didn’t just take a withdrawal for the quarter. Not being harsh, just playing devil’s advocate.

In your plan to recuperate your status, you don’t mention your tutoring schedule. Big omission. It doesn’t sound like anything is going to change. You don’t mention any of the tutoring centers. You don’t mention that you emailed the counseling center to ask for a call back. You don’t mention that you contacted your previous professors to ask for supplemental text references.

Apparently you didn’t focus on the syllabus.

Really? PLAN and DOING are two completely different things. One office hour per week? You only have one class? My daughter was an engineering tutor, she saw the students who wanted “A’s” on an almost daily basis. She saw the “D” and “F” students at the end of the quarter.

What was the motivation, that they dismissed you? I’m sorry if I sound harsh, but these committees don’t have a lot of time to make these kinds of decisions. If they have professors and office hour GA’s that are speaking on your behalf, then the committee has some evidence of possible change. If you are on Financial Aid, then you need further proof of your sincerity to complete your work (office hours attendance, tutors, student group work evidence, etc.)
Think about what you’ve written and how someone else would read it.

4

You were pretty harsh but I appreciate your bluntness. Honestly, I got myself into this situation so I can’t really whine and complain anyways. You are right about tutoring, I completely forgot to write about that. Since our school doesn’t offer tutoring for any of my classes I found a tutor through my school department. Do you suppose 1 office hour a week and two hours a week with a tutor is sufficient? I plan to only take a tutor for one class (the class I’m retaking). I also meant one office hour a week PER class so three different office hours a week. There are usually two offices hours offered a week PER class however I don’t know if I can attend both since times are not released and I could have schedule conflict. I’m a bit confused of what you mean about proving how I can change. I already made a schedule plan, I have two tutors that I’m deciding from (I’ll pick one), I have reviewed supplemental materials offered by the math department, I will also add that I called the counseling center for a call back. With all of this in mind, I don’t know how I can add more sincerity that I want to AND will change.

5

I’ll keep your advice in mind. I was also thinking whether taking three math classes is ok, but one is a coding class, another is a retake, and another is a new class. I also can’t talk to my advisor either because its break so this is very unfortunate. I still have another class on my schedule that I’m debating to keep and switch out for one of my classes but again all my advisors are on break.

6

If you are struggling in math and it currently doesn’t come easily for you, take your time with the math courses and make sure you understand the concepts because they link and build up. You have to get the basic foundation to move up.

Yes, I was harsh. You need to show the committee that you are worthy of another chance so, you have to have the answers to their questions, prior to their review of your case:
What is changing and how is it quantifiable?
Did the student take advantage of campus ancillary services to succeed? Is the student going to continue those ancillary services?
Is there support from the student’s former professors?

You have to show that you researched what your responsibility will be, versus other students, who are appealing. Attach a tentative tutoring schedule. (“I have attached my office hours/tutoring days barring any scheduling conflicts”). If your school has a Study Center, list the hours you hope to attend with extension/email information.
Show them that you did the research and INVESTED time and talent! Others won’t do that, so it should put you at an advantage, showing your level of commitment.
That’s what you need to do to get them on your team.

7

This should be shorter, more concise, and use more paragraph breaks too. It is certainly not true that longer appeals are more successful. You need to show that you understand why you failed and have a believable plan to succeed, and enough changes or avenues for change (like therapy, 7 day plan etc.) to convince them.

It would be much better if you had talked to a doctor or therapist who could document your depression, anxiety, and focus issues. Or even document your family’s COVID troubles.

This year, universities are showing some leniency due to COVID, remote learning and so on. But honestly your letter is not convincing.

Are your housing issues resolved?

Take out the part about how you would have failed Math 120A with different grading! Also the religious insecurities.

Have you been on probation in the past? Often dismissal follows probation. If you have been on probation your chances are less clear.

They may grant you a reprieve, but if they don’t, please know it is not the end of the world. Many of the parents on here have kids who left school for one reason or another and later thrived.

I am so sorry about your relatives and the difficulties you have experienced.

8

Nobody wants to read about the details of the grading system of one math course vs another. You should be doing well enough so that it doesn’t matter how they weight the different pieces. And you should certainly be aware of the different pieces. I was really surprised to discover that my fairly asocial son went to every single office hour along with friends to do their homework. Apparently the homework was hard enough it was easier to be right there so you could ask questions.

I always thought when planning a schedule that it was helpful to have things that were paced differently and used different parts of my brain. You don’t want everything due the same day if you can help it.

I agree with all the advice you’ve gotten so far. See if you can use half as many words. Don’t whine.

9

Your last paragraph is pretty good, I’d move that further up, maybe as the second paragraph, also don’t promise a grade a B or anything like that, just that you’ll do your best from the beginning of the quarter. As other posters have said, you don’t need a lot of the detail, definitely get rid of grading of math courses, just I was lucky to pass the class I did. Most of you second an third paragraphs should be edited down, just say you had close relatives that had a serious case of covid, which was tough emotionally and impacted your grades. Just keep the forward looking statements in the third paragraph, the counseling center, office hours.

While hs is different academically, you can point to the academic factors that led the college to admit you to show you were capable of good work.

11

I see thank you, I don’t think I can quite cut it down to half but I did cut 1/3 of it down. I was surprised how much of it was “excuses” so I’m sorry If I came out whiny. That wasn’t my intention so I appreciate the viewpoint.

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12

Your new version is much improved. Good luck.

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13

I would delete the part about hoping the grades would be curved!

“Prowess” is not the right word to use.

I would put some paragraph breaks in there.

Good that you haven’t been on probation. Good luck!

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14

You can definitely reduce the letter by another 1/3 or so. Even if you don’t, break up the third para into two smaller ones. As an example for the second para:

My aunt, grandmother, and grandfather contracted COVID-19 mid-quarter, and still suffer from complications, affecting my grades [put in here how). To make matters worse, my great grandmother recently passed away. I also had two friends who needed help during these times and came to me for advice and consolation. These events caused me to lose motivation and the focus needed to do well the past quarter.

There’s no need to talk about suicidal thoughts your friends had, unless that kind of detail is asked for down the road.

15

Thank you everyone for your help. Because of my previous record they only gave me academic probation (I didn’t have to submit an appeal thank god). I am so grateful that I’m not getting kicked out. Now I’m going to get my life together and not ruin this opportunity.

4 Likes
16

Thanks for letting us know, and good luck!

2 Likes
17

Good!
Go to the tutors as often as you can!
Get to know the people at the the “writing center/help center”. Go bug them! They will help and will become your buddies!
If you do everything, you will graduate with good grades, friends, and recommendations!
Good Luck!

1 Like
18

I agree with simplifying the letter as discussed…other things to cover are:

  1. Did you know things were going badly? If not, why not?
  2. If you did, why didn’t you start doing anything differently?

Also, are you aware of all the student support you have at your school?
There are office hours, tutors, study groups, of course… at CWRU as an example, there is much more than that (shown below)…Search your college for Academic Support and see if they have anything else.

I would also include talking to your advisor to make sure you are taking the right classes…was math 120 and 121 at the same time a good idea? Were they dependent on each other?

Also I would highly recommend the book by Cal Newport: “How To Become a Straight-A Student:
The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less” It will help you with time management and how to be more efficient.

Also get it into your head that

  1. Your professors and college want you to succeed
  2. Just going to class isn’t going to be sufficient
  3. there are many tools (academic support) that the college provides THAT YOU PAY FOR…take advantage of as many of those you can to succeed!

Example of CWRU academic support
Peer Tutoring
Peer Tutors are fellow students who are trained to work with you on an individual basis. They can reinforce what you already know, model new ways of learning, and connect notes and readings.

Study Group +1
Students can strengthen their understanding through discussion of course content in a peer tutor-supported study group of no more than 5 students. It allows students to utilize their collective knowledge to achieve the shared academic goal of student understanding.

Supplemental Instruction (SI)
Supplemental Instruction (SI) is available each semester in selected undergraduate courses in mathematics, sciences, and engineering. SI Leaders are trained and experienced peer educators, each of whom has been successful in his or her assigned course. SI Leaders attend the course to which they have been assigned and conduct weekly study sessions designed to give students the opportunity to actively engage in course material.

Spoken English Language Programs
Spoken English tutoring is available for improving pronunciation, conversational, and fluency skills. Appointments are on a first-come, first-serve basis for undergraduate and graduate students.

Writing Center:
The Writing Resource Center (WRC) provides individual support for academic writers across the university.

Personal Librarian:
Personal librarian: Each student is assigned a personal librarian to guide you with research assignments, help setting up a computer and more. You’ll receive your personal librarian assignment before the start of classes, but your navigator can also connect you to your assigned librarian. Librarians are assigned by residence college, but you can also view a list of librarians by academic department.
http://library.case.edu/ksl/services/personallibrarian/

Academic Inventory
This tool will help you assess important academic skills like time management, goal setting, and note taking. It can help identify what’s going well and possible areas for improvement.

Printable Student Resources
These one-page PDF resources are designed to help students improve their study habits and academic performance. Download and and save or print them for easy reference.
https://students.case.edu/academic/resources/onepagers/