Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to appeal my PSYC100 final mark at Queen¿¿s University Faculty of Arts and Science due to my failure in meeting the required mark for acceptance into the Psychology program. I understand the consequences involved and take full responsibility for my poor academic performance. However, I do hope with the use of this letter, you would consider granting me this opportunity to join the Psychology plan here.

Attending Queen¿¿s University was never considered to be achievable in my books until suggested, and was a dream come true having to find out I got accepted into the Arts and Science program. Heading into first year, I had a clear focus on sticking to the Psychology program due to pure interest and ability to perform adequately well. However, I was unaware of the heavy workload involved with PSYC100 and found it to be one of the most challenging courses to manage. Although not being able to obtain the required mark for the Psychology plan, I decided to retake it a second time the year after. Feeling fairly confident halfway through the year fully knowing that I was evidently performing better than the previous year, my grandmother became ill and was diagnosed with having cancer. Being incredibly close to my grandmother, I consistently flexed back and forth between my academics and heading home numerous times to check up on her condition. Several weeks later, she passed away as this took a hard hit on me. This led to the inability to complete assignments with full effort and low motivation to study for upcoming exams.

Feeling discouraged from keeping up with my studies, this led to feeling largely anxious as exams came creeping closer by the day. I tried relieving my stress and anxiousness through exercise, yet this not only consumed more of my time, but also left me exhausted and caused me to fall further behind. As the weeks passed by and as the new term began, I developed a new level of anxiousness I was unfamiliar with and tried numerous ways to get back on track and start anew after realizing that this was negatively affecting my mental health. I got caught up with my personal issues and decided to complete a psychology study ran by a PhD student that evaluated my mental health as well as held a private interview to complete this study. Through this, I was able to let out numerous anxieties and fears running through my mind for months on end, yet it didn¿¿t necessarily solve anything. I continued to have second thoughts and regrets of many previous actions mainly about my grandmother¿¿s passing but also what this meant for my parent¿¿s considering this was the last straw stringing the both of them together after recently filing for divorce.

As I start the new upcoming school year with a fresh start, I plan on using the resources on campus provided to its fullest advantage in order to enhance my academic capability. I now fully understand the amount of commitment needed in order to perform at a high level and obtain better results than before. To help, I¿¿ve decided to take a summer course to improve my focus and figure out a method of managing my time and mental health in order to succeed as well as take a comfortable amount of courses during the school year to improve on my overall well being.

I hope you understand that due to this event, it does not reveal that I am a weak and incapable student but rather one that has struggled from this situation. Going forward, I will continue to find ways to manage my anxiety and mental health in a healthy manner. I hope you will provide me the opportunity to display my full potential as a student. Thank you for considering this appeal.