Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear officer,

I am writing this letter to request the removal of the one-year academic penalty imposed on me for taking a leave of absence. Due to special circumstances, I faced challenges during the 2022 fall and 2023 winter terms, which ultimately prevented me from meeting the GPA requirement to continue my studies. Therefore, I hope to explain the difficulties I encountered during the previous two semesters and request the opportunity to continue my studies in the upcoming term. Thank you very much for your consideration.

2022 FALL

During my first semester at the university, I faced numerous challenges, including difficulties in adapting to the language and environment, anxiety about academic performance, a lack of foundation in academic writing, and concerns about my parents' potential divorce. These challenges resulted in significant academic pressure during the 2022 fall term, which hindered me from establishing a solid academic foundation for subsequent studies.

Competing with my father's expectations:
Since childhood, my father has always favored boys over girls. Whenever I underperformed, he would sigh and say that girls are not as intelligent as boys, and if he had a son, he would surely possess remarkable logical and computational abilities. My mother would defend me during such moments, which often led to arguments between them. As a result, I have always been terrified of disappointing my father and hearing his sighs, as well as the arguments between my parents. I desperately wanted to break free from this situation, but my only recourse was to study harder. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, my grades in subjects like math and physics remained lower than in other disciplines. Whenever my poor performance triggered arguments between my parents, I felt suffocated and guilty. I hated myself for not being able to excel academically, for constantly falling short of my father's expectations, and for causing my mother to be blamed for my faults.

Later on, I discovered that if I achieved good grades, my father would no longer criticize me for not being a boy, and the tense atmosphere at home would dissipate. Since then, I have consistently worked hard to improve my academic performance, hoping that our family can always enjoy a relaxed and happy environment. In fact, I am truly grateful for receiving an offer from Queen's University, as it is one of the few occasions when my father praised me. The months following the offer were also the most stress-free moments.

Unreasonable choice of major and courses:
I did not give much thought to the choice of my major. I always craved more approval from my father, so I decided to study economics, which earned me his praise once again. Since my father has always worked in the financial sector, obtaining his recognition in terms of professional competence would mean that he would no longer deny me based on my gender. Consequently, I selected the following courses in accordance with the requirements of the economics major: MATH126A, ECON110A, French (FREN106) out of personal interest, Music (MUSC104) because of my musical background, and POLS110A out of curiosity as I had never been exposed to it before.

In the initial weeks of the semester, while I was still adjusting to the new environment, I managed to perform well on the early exams because the scope was relatively limited, and I devoted time to practice. However, starting from October, the courses became more challenging, and the workload increased significantly. I was burdened with a multitude of academic responsibilities. At the same time, due to concerns about my oral English proficiency, my grades remained consistently poor:
- Both MATH126A and ECON110A demanded logical reasoning skills that I was not particularly adept at.
- FREN106 required me to memorize a large number of vocabulary words, as I had no prior knowledge of the language.
- MUSC104 was quite different from what I had anticipated, focusing on theoretical aspects that were almost entirely new to me. After the midterms, many classmates chose to drop the course. However, as I had a musical background and had informed my father about my decision to take a music theory course, I did not want him to think that despite my musical abilities, I couldn't excel in a subject. I wanted to eliminate any potential doubts he might have, so I decided to continue the course and aimed to improve my grades.
- POLS110A involved numerous writing assignments. However, I had absolutely no prior experience in academic writing, so I could only improve based on the feedback from the teacher. Although I made some progress, it was at a slow pace.

I feel extremely anxious about my mediocre academic performance:
During my studies, my father would occasionally ask about my grades, and at that time, I was trying to adapt to the living environment and adjust to the pace of my studies. Although I spent almost all my time studying, I still felt that there wasn't enough time. I was very anxious and often couldn't sleep at night, constantly worrying about my academic performance.

But what made me even more anxious was that the more nervous I became, the harder it was for me to fully immerse myself in my studies. No matter how many times I reviewed the material I had studied, I still felt scared whenever I received messages from my parents. I would blame myself, thinking,