Dear Financial Aid Appeals,
I am writing to you to appeal your decision on not giving me Financial Aid for the 2017-2018 school year. I understand this decision, as I did not meet Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) at my old college. There are some motives as to why I didn’t meet the standards set, but also just pure fault on my end as I didn’t take this as seriously as I should have and just plain out underestimated higher education. I decided that I could be a commuter to my old college ([a] Community College) and it did not work out for me. Being off-campus the majority of the time made me lose focus and not prioritize correctly, and it also made it hard for me to get to class due to me taking public transit and not being able to drive. I plan on changing that with this transfer by moving onto campus. I also decided that I could handle online classes, which I found out the hard way that I cannot. I had a hard time comprehending in an at-home environment and prioritizing with all the distractions that came with not being in a proper classroom. It was a decision that I now regret and should have thought over better.
Along with my own discrepancies on not being able to prioritize and taking the wrong classes in the wrong places, I also switched majors in the middle of fall semester. I understand that is not an excuse, but I do believe that you need to be made aware. Also, towards the middle of the fall semester or 2017, my aunt (who is my main supporter as of right now) had found out she had a severely infected knee from a replacement gone wrong about four years ago. With this infection, she was forced to take a long leave of absence from her job, which led to her just quitting and applying for disability, which we had to appeal several times, and it forced me to have to work two main jobs and a third part-time job on the side to maintain bills. We also had to shut off our internet connection, which made it hard for online classes. It made it hard for me to study and get to class, because one of my jobs was a morning shift and I went to the other one immediately after getting off and worked all night. Neither of these jobs offered much flexibility with my class schedule, so I had to take it in stride and only go when I could. Since then, I have now found a job that will work with me. On top of this, this infection rendered my aunt basically bed-ridden and I therefore became her primary caretaker, a role of which I play up until this point.
I also back then struggled with depression and anxiety, and it went untreated for a long time. I was unmedicated and struggled with thoughts of suicide and could barely get out of bed unless it was for work. Since then though, I have begun therapy and have been diagnosed with chronic social anxiety and depression by [a doctor] and have started proper medication.
I take full responsibility for my failures and discrepancies but I am working to change that by transferring schools to somewhere I feel like I can succeed and will give me what I need to do so. I will only take physical in-person classes from now on, and I plan on meeting with a tutor once to twice a week in my trouble subjects. I will also be seeing my academic advisors on the constant to be sure I am on track, as seeing them was not required at my old college and therefore I did not see them. I regret that decision on my part. To avoid my transportation problems, I plan on transferring to UC Blue Ash from Cincinnati State and will be moving onto Uptown Campus and quitting all of my jobs. Living on campus in an academic environment without the looming of bills and work will keep me driven and school will always be at the forefront of my mind because I will be around people who are also prioritizing their futures. I will maintain a 2.0 GPA or higher and will drop no more classes. My aunt is now in the process of hiring an at-home nurse, as she is now drawing disability, so I am able to move out and focus on my studies. I plan on taking more credit hours my next semester to fix my completion rate, and immediately getting tutoring if I have any confusion whatsoever in any of those subjects. I am in a financial situation where it would be next to impossible for me to draw private loans, so I do hope you will consider my plea, as I want nothing more than to finish my degree and be successful in life and transferring here is my chance to do so correctly. I really enjoy learning and I have learned the hard way that I really need to apply myself and learn balance to get anywhere in higher education, so I hope that your administration will give me the second chance and clean slate I need.
Sincerely Yours,
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