Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am a fourth year student who major in Economics and I am writing to drop my Econ452, ¿¿advanced econometrics¿, and Econ 351, ¿¿introductory econometrics¿, held within the winter semester of 2016. I was very disappointed and upset when I saw the grade of these two courses.
I took 7 courses this semester which means that I really have to put large effort on studying. However, I suffered severe depression last semester especially the period after reading week. I often could not get enough sleep because I were really worried about my grade and my future and I were really afraid that I could not graduate. I often felt very disappointed and frustrated about myself especially after the midterms because many of my midterms exams did not reach my expectations. I felt there was no hope for me and totally could not focus on studying. Every time when I tried to study I felt anxious and began to worry. Besides, I also could not get along well with my friends and families. Most of the time I wanted to stay alone and I were easy to be mad at my friends. I am an international student so I usually Skype with my families once a week but I was afraid to talk to my families last semester because I did not want them to feel disappointed to me. I also failed to find a partner in my Econ452 class which was really important for this course because there was no way for me to initiatively talk to others. I did well on some courses such as CLST103 because this is a 100 level course I did not have to study hard to get a high mark. However, I found Econ452 and Econ351 were very hard especially Econ452 since both of them are concerning to econometrics. I felt Econ452 is the most difficult course I have ever took. I did not drop these courses before deadline because I am an international student both of my Visa and study permit are going to expire in September so I cannot come back to study next semester. This is an important reason for me to took 7 courses and the major reason that I did not drop before deadline when I realize that I could not handle these two courses. I really wanted to graduate also due to financial pressure, as an international student the tuition fee and the living expenses are really high.
My poor academic performance is due to my depression (campus counsellor provide me a letter). I am a fourth year student and I really cannot afford to get failures on my transcript because I am planning to apply for Master¿¿s Degree and failures will greatly affect my chance of being accepted. Besides, i am taking summer courses to replace these courses so I can get enough credits and do not have to come back next semester. I am really hoping that you will let me drop these course.
I will be happy to answer any question that you might ask. Thank you for considering this appeal.

Sincerely,
Lihui Yao