Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I am writing to respectfully petition for Credit (CR) Standing in PSYC 100, taken during the 2023–2024 academic year. My performance in this course was significantly impacted by personal extenuating circumstances beyond my control, and I believe this request is justified in order to present an academic record that more accurately reflects my abilities and growth.

Extenuating Circumstances

During the winter term of 2023–2024, I experienced a deeply emotional and destabilizing personal event. I found out that my then-girlfriend had been unfaithful, and our breakup shortly after had a significant effect on my mental health. I began experiencing symptoms consistent with depression—difficulty concentrating, lack of motivation, and emotional exhaustion.
At the time, I was in denial about how deeply this was affecting me. I did not seek professional support because I thought I could manage on my own. In reality, my performance across several areas of life began to suffer. One clear indicator was that I withdrew from activities I had previously enjoyed and participated in regularly, such as intramural volleyball. These signs only became apparent to me in hindsight, but during that time, the emotional strain deeply affected my ability to perform academically—particularly in PSYC 100 as the format of the course was only 2 exams. I found, well initially super interested in the course I began to neglect it and could not find myself to look at the content all I wanted to do way lay in a dark empty room alone. Interestingly enough, I found a similar trend in other courses, but managed to still excel due to the ability to have a multiple components making up my marks not just 1 exam, as well as being able to learn the content online through online courses.

Academic Recovery and Career Goals

Since then, I’ve done substantial personal work and reflection. I’ve rebuilt consistency in my academics, established better routines, and recommitted to my long-term goal of becoming a family physician. Specifically, I hope to apply to the Queen’s–Lakeridge distributed medical program, which aligns perfectly with my passion for community-based, accessible care.

In the Winter 2025 term, I earned a 3.680 GPA, demonstrating my ability to perform at a high academic level when not affected by personal crisis. Despite this improvement, my cumulative GPA still reflects the weight of earlier challenges that no longer represent who I am as a student or as a future healthcare provider. I’ve also continued to build my readiness for medicine through consistent hospital volunteering, varsity athletics, and four years of part-time work.

Request

In light of the above, I respectfully request that my grade in PSYC 100 be converted to Credit (CR) Standing. I believe this adjustment would allow my transcript to more fairly reflect both my academic ability and the exceptional circumstances that affected my performance in that term. This is proven from my marks in all other courses which mainly align with high academic success.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Maxwell May