Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean and whom it may concern,

Hope you are doing well. I am now writing this letter for a late course drop.
There are two reasons that lead to my decision now: One is my procrastination, anxiety and language problem; The other is the feed back from the course.

I am an exchanging student from China, who has experienced the terrible lock down period in Shanghai last year. This experience has influenced me a lot: It worsen my procrastination and anxiety which means that I began often missing the due and becoming more anxiety about my academic performance and harder to let myself start. I have fallen into a negative circle where the anxiety and procrastination make each other worse, leading to a bad study habit. I have visited the professionals for help and get a little better. And the recourses (wellness center & SASS) I can get at Queen’s make me much better. (At least, never miss the due again.) However, the problems still haven’t thoroughly solved. The effort and time that I am able to put on academic are still limited, not enough to deal with all of them with thorough understanding in an English environment, which is the second Language for me. For example, it usually takes me 10-20 minutes to finish one page from any paper. At the same time, the time I could finally put into study is far not enough for the extra time.

The above is the reason why I want to drop it. The following is the reason why I didn’t drop it before the due. During the past two months, due to the support I got from SASS and wellness center, I believe that I could handle these courses and the study load. But the grade of my essay turns out that it’s not the reality. DEVS 101, which course I want to drop, publish the grade and feedback of first assignment in the morning of Oct.30. I got 6 out of 10. The essay takes 25% of the final grade. And the professor said that if we have questions about the grade and essay, go to the TA on Nov. 1 class. That’s the reason why I miss the due to drop a course. After attending the course and talking with TA, I was not sure whether I could finally manage it. I hesitated because it seems that there could be a chance of handling it. But after several days’ hesitation, I decide to submit this pentition to drop it given the situation I have mentioned in the first paragraph.

I think it is better for me to make a more realistic choice instead of taking a risk to challenge a mission too ambitious. I want to spare more time to deal with the rest courses to get everything better: making a plan of study with (comparative) plenty of time, increasing the effort I can put on each course, receiving more positive feedbacks and achievements that may start the positive cycle of my study and life.

Considering all of this, I hope I could get the permission of dropping this course.

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,
Alexis Yang
Exchanging student from Fudan University
Student No. 20437495