Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean (Studies):
I am writing to you to appeal for the Faculty¿¿s decision that I must withdraw from Queen¿¿s for a minimum of one year. I am currently registered in the Computer Sciences program and have completed my second year with little improvements. In this letter, I will explain the reasons behind the lack of a dramatic increase in my GPA.

I had always been interested in the animation world, yet I never really looked into the details of computer animation. However, when I noticed that Queen¿¿s University offered a Computer Sciences program, I applied for it immediately without thinking twice. Unfortunately, because of my lack of background knowledge in the field, I struggled throughout first year and landed in academic probation.

The course I had the hardest time in was Film Studies. As an international student, English was not my first language. While I had studied at a Canadian high school, my ability to catch all the details in a film is not on the level of my classmates. In a course that required thorough analysis of a film material spoken entirely in English proved to be very difficult. I was unable to keep up with the fast paced dialogue and as a consequence, my grades had suffered.

Once my grades fell, it became harder to find the motivation to continue. As a consequence, I failed to bring my marks back up. I became lost and felt hopeless in a program that I no longer felt excited about. Instead of enjoying my early years of university, I saw myself stressing just to get through a course. It did not help my confidence when my grades did not improve midterm after midterm. As a student that had good grades in high school, it became devastating to view my exams and face disappointment. I knew I was better than this.

I do not believe that withdrawing a year will make difference to my studies. Instead, a more thought out study plan would have a more significant impact to increase my grades. After two years of studying at Queen¿¿s, I was able to understand more about myself and what kind of learner I am. In second year, I tested out different methods of learning and was able to find one that worked for me, as demonstrated by my A- in one of my classes. I excel in small classes situations and do well when I have more interaction with my teachers. Unfortunately, I had been intimidated by the class size in first year and the feeling of being lost in a sea of students; I lost my confidence to approach my professors.

By the time I knew what I was doing, it was already too late to fully implement the method. Therefore, I am humbly requesting to appeal the decision of withdrawing a year. Unlike the previous years, I will fully utilize the great tutorial program that is offered. I plan on minimizing the distance I felt before, by attending office hours and tutorials with well-thought out questions. I also plan on decreasing my workload by taking fewer classes in a term until I am able to improve my grades sufficiently.