Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Members of the Academic Review Committee,

My name is QingYang Li and my student number is 20382589. I am writing to respectfully submit this petition to request a late drop without academic penalty due to special circumstances for the following four courses from the current semester:

MATH 225-002 (Final exam scheduled: December 2)
MATH 110A-001 (December 11)
CISC 121-001 (December 9)
CISC 102-002 (December 17)

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the final examinations for any of the four courses listed in the previous question. This was not the result of neglect of my academic responsibilities, but rather the cumulative effect of being placed under significant psychological stress.

As the international student that I am, I have experienced a tremendous level of difficulty in adjusting to the environment when the semester first begun. The cultural setting, language, and the fact that I have struggled to establish a steady support network in the new setting have been factors that have hampered me to a large extent in gaining access to any mental and emotional support. Even when I made the effort to brief my parents on the situation, they were unable to appreciate the needs involved in living and studying on my own in a foreign land, apart from urging me to excel in academics.

Aside from the above challenges that come with the process of adjustment, I had many problems with visa documentation. These regular delays and failures in the submission of the necessary documentation put me in a constant state of stress and alertness. Therefore, my mental and intellectual capabilities were diminished as a result of the regular insomnia, lack of mental well-being, as well as high levels of stress and anxiety that I encountered.

With the increase in the number of stressors, the effect they have been creating on my learning ability has also grown. It has become increasingly difficult for me to go to class and sit through the lectures, let alone the ones which required a certain degree of cognition, problem-solving, and analytical skills. What took a considerable amount of time and effort would take an infinite amount of time, and while accuracy and understanding are certainly not beyond reach, they are certainly not what they used to be. Prior to the current condition, my executive skills, such as organization, time management, and preparation for examinations, were rendered dysfunctional.

Moreover, this condition of mental fatigue and suffering further limited my engagement in active learning behaviors such as reviewing, questioning, and seeking help with academics. Even while being physically there, my level of cognitive engagement was very limited due to my experiences of reading the same pages repeatedly without comprehending them, finding myself unable to connect my thoughts, and experiencing “shutdowns” in my mind when subjected to any academics related tasks, which directly affected me in my assignments and readiness levels for the final exams. Conversely, as my academic performance declined, feelings of self-blame and helplessness also emerged. These feelings also worked as the stimuli for the avoidant behaviors, thus entrenching a self-reinforcing process where decreased mental and academic performance mutually reinforced each other. In such a scenario, an individual finds it impossible to objectify the evaluation of his/her academic performance and also form sound judgments concerning withdrawal from the courses. Moreover, an individual also tends to misjudge his/her own ability to handle the situation caused due to the mental and academic overload.

I would also like to note that the final grade for another course this semester has not yet been released, but I expect to pass. This factor was mostly related to my prior academic exposure to the subject area, which made the intellectual effort to stay at par with that class less strenuous. It is not indicative of my overall ability to maintain academic consistency in my classes; rather, this incident indicates that my ability to learn new and taxing information in classes was severely affected by the psychological and situational pressures I was under.

In conclusion, my failure to complete the aforementioned four courses was not due to my lack of academic attitude/effort, but due to a compounded degree of difficulties with adjustment, difficulties with my mental well-being, as well as stress related to my visa, which significantly affected my ability to learn. I have taken a great amount of time to reflect upon this situation and am now actively pursuing professional help to overcome my issues with my mental well-being as well as my academic abilities, which are related to my previous difficulties. Respectfully, I ask that the committee takes my specific circumstances into account and grants me a late drop for special circumstances for the courses listed above.