I was recently rejected for the Fall 2019 term at SDSU as a first time freshman. I had numbers that I saw others get in with and I am planning to appeal based on the fact that I have full hearing loss in my right ear which caused difficulty in school. Below is my letter of appeal. Any help or critiques are appreciated!
Dear Admissions Committee.
I am writing in hopes to appeal my Fall 2019 rejection. I was not surprised when I received my rejection as I know that the SDSU admissions process gets progressively more competitive every year. I feel that I have circumstances that will make up for my less competitive numbers.
My reason is this; since I was around four years old, I have had full hearing loss in my right ear. This means that I am unable to localize sound, have difficulty hearing in certain situations, and have a harder time making out words or pronunciations. My hearing loss didn’t really become an issue until high school. Being in large classrooms made it exceptionally difficult to hear the teacher or someone speaking if there were any other noises around me. This caused me to become frustrated in my classes as it became increasingly more difficult to understand certain concepts if I could barely hear the teacher speaking. Over time, I figured out ways to make it easier to hear in my classes, such as requesting certain seats in the class or just making sure my peers around me knew about the difficulties surrounding my hearing loss. As shown on my transcript, you can see that my grades have steadily progressed from freshman year. I believe if I were to attend SDSU I would be a competitive student as I have now learned techniques to overcome this blockade and can perform my best in academic situations.
Thank you for taking the time to read my appeal, and I hope to hear from you soon.
Did you or your counselor mention any of this on your original application?
Were you provided with aural rehabilitation help in high school?
If you have a documented hearing loss, you aren’t supposed to figure out how to hear or how to seat yourself; you’re supposed to have a hard-of-hearing specialist working with you.
SDSU has a really good Student Ability Success Center. You were supposed to contact them when you applied to submit your IEP. http://go.sdsu.edu/student_affairs/sds/Default.aspx?
If you didn’t mention any disability on your original application AND your counselor didn’t mention anything, SDSU will wonder why it wasn’t originally mentioned.
I’m sorry to hear that. Did you get any accommodations such as hearing aids? I’m not exactly sure if I’m understanding your grounds for appeals but essentially (correct me if I’m wrong) are you saying that a significant factor of your “less competitive numbers” was due to a hearing problem in your right ear?
Of course, I don’t know your full circumstances and I hope to not offend you, but I’m not exactly sure why this wasn’t included in your application (when it seems like a really big impediment to your learning!). Did you let your GC know to include this in his/her GC LOR?
I did some hearing aid trials, but the type of hearing loss I have requires surgery and it just wasn’t the right fit for me. There was nowhere on the application to include anything other than numbers. No letter from counselor or anything, so the school was unaware
I mentioned it on all other applications (common app, UC) but the Cal State app was only inputting grades and sending test scores. There was no opportunity to write about myself or anything like that
Well, you were able to get into Long Beach, SFSU, SJSU which are CSU’s. Long Beach and SJSU are tough admits and you got into them. If you got into them, without any mention of the hearing loss, and it wasn’t on your transcript, then you may be stuck.
I think an admissions committee would not feel comfortable admitting you because of a couple of issues:
You didn’t ask the other schools for special consideration because of your hearing and you were admitted.
They can check.
If you needed surgery but couldn’t do that, an HOH specialist in high school, would have worked with your teachers and your administration to deal with ambient noises affecting you, without letting other kids know that you have/had a disability. The HOH would have helped in many other ways and it would have been noted on the transcript.
SDSU is famous for having large lecture halls. There are weeder classes and you would struggle. The schools don't want you to struggle; they want you to do well.
Now, you want to report a hearing loss because you didn’t get into SDSU. They would question how you got into the other schools without letting those schools know about your loss. They would also question how a student, with an obvious loss, in large lecture halls at SDSU, would deal with the frustration. Without previously asking for help with managing your loss, this would show that it is not a good fit for you nor for SDSU; desperation pleas don’t work.
The other schools are very good schools, I don’t know why it has to be SDSU.
You’ve been given excellent advice in the various replies. In addition to what was written above - SDSU states on their website to “Allow time for processing. It may take at least six to eight weeks for appeal decision.” “At least” should be emphasized. If you look through previous years’ discussions about appeals, sometimes it takes months and months to receive a second denial or, in very rare situations,a reversal. In years past, some students don’t hear back until August. Admissions has a ton going on and everyone is contacting them. It is a huge school, and their focus is on current and admitted students.
If you want to appeal, absolutely do it, but don’t count on it being reversed and do make plans to attend your second choice school. SDSU is very upfront that they seldom reverse denials. Like many students, my kids didn’t attend their “dream” schools. I’m not really sure if they even had one. Even with 4.5+ GPAs, they didn’t feel any school was their safety because university admissions can be so random, but they found a path that uplifted them, and they received awesome educations. Looking back, they ended up in really great situations.
My opinion is an appeal letter should come from the heart and not be an excuse which is how this one sounds.
If you were my child I would suggest you redo it and focus on why you want SDSU? How long have you been dreaming of going there? What can you gain from going to SDSU? What will you bring to SDSU in not only your major but the community? What community service have you done or extra curriculars that you can bring to & continue at SDSU (for instance my D is involved with The Inclusion club at her hs and the club helps to include developmentally disabled students into regular school life or she founded The Kindness Club both of these can be continued at any college & benefit the school).
After you write this heartfelt letter I would conclude with something along the lines of: after becoming completely deaf in one yr as a child I have had several disadvantages, such as figuring out how to overcome my difficulties in hs. Through trial & error I was able to not only overcome but to steadily improve my grades.
It is this perseverance that I will bring to SDSU…
Don’t use that word for word, edit it as a brief mention of perseverance. Doing so will show you are not just whining & using a disability as an excuse but you are someone who truly wants to be an Aztec.
I would submit this online, then send the same letter with updated transcripts to: admissions, the specific college/department you applie to, and the dean. Include 2 references, an updated list of ec’s, community service, and anything else that you feel is important. Lastly and I feel most important include a small color photo. This helps change you from a number to a human.
My S applied as a freshman and was denied. He appealed and was again denied. He went to SJSU and had a bad time his first semester. He came home, 3 semesters a cc, he went to 3 local cc’s so he could get all needed classes in. Opted for a associates for transfer and was accepted at not only SDSU but fouls 7 other schools. He originally as a freshman with great stats only got into 2.
So if SDSU is really what you want you can get there it may take time. Also you need to decide on a backup because you will not be notified before May 1.