What to do if you have been Academically Suspended

College Life
1

You didn’t do well last semester and you got a letter from your college telling you that you were academically suspended. What should you do?

**You had a medical/mental health issue **

Maybe you realize that you were dealing with Depression or Anxiety and that caused the issues.
Maybe you had some other kind of health issue.

  1. Get diagnosed by a doctor.
    2 ) Talk to the Dean of Students about getting a retroactive medical withdrawal.
  2. Get your health issue under control.

It was because of some other issue

Maybe you broke up with your girlfriend. Maybe you worked too much. Maybe your parent died.
Maybe you partied too much.

You need to write a letter to appeal your suspension.

A successful appeal must do several things:

  1. show that you understand what went wrong
  2. show that you take responsibility for the academic failures
  3. show that you have a plan for future academic success
  4. in a broad sense, show that you are being honest with yourself and the committee

Here are some examples:

http://collegeapps.about.com/od/Academic-Dismissals/a/Sample-Appeal-Letter-For-An-Academic-Dismissal.htm

  1. search this topic on CC and you will see many other posts on academic appeals
  2. Make sure your letter states what the issue was that caused you to have academic difficulties
  3. Did you talk to your professors/dean of students about the issue?
  4. Did you make use of the many resources your school has? if not, why not?
  5. Find out what those resources are specific to your college…e.g., counseling center, talking to professors, talking to your adviser, withdrawing from class, talking to dean, maybe taking incompletes,
    Here are other ideas:
    http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1920853-college-is-a-step-up-from-hs-16-tips-on-doing-well-in-college.html
  6. State how you would use those in the future
  7. How are you addressing what caused the issue?
  8. Think about if you should continue at college, or take a break.
  9. Think about if you should continue at a community college.
  10. How is your college funded? Will that continue?

In general, keep in mind what the college wants…they want students who can succeed. They need to know that you understand what the issue was, know now the resources that you can use, how the problem is resolved so you will not have academic issues in the future.

Any other thoughts?

2

As someone who has served on a faculty committee that reviews such appeals, I have a few comments. First, you should consider not appealing the suspension. Maybe you need a semester back home to figure out what went wrong, where the weaknesses are. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It can be a time to reflect on what you want out of your college experience and how you will achieve it.

But if you do pursue an appeal, you should keep in mind that a retroactive medical withdrawal will mean that every course for that entire semester will be a W (withdrawal) and you will not receive credit for any of your courses. Furthermore, many colleges require you to take a semester medical leave following a medical withdrawal (so you would actually not be able to request a return to campus until the FOLLOWING semester). In this scenario, the entire year is a loss in terms of credits. This may be the best plan, but it may not be.

3

Right you are, @ProfessorMom1. Some people do poorly in all of their classes so it is worth not having them in their GPA. Some people would do better taking an incomplete in one or more classes. (e.g., if something happens at the end of the semester but otherwise you were doing well in the class).