Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am requesting an appeal for Credit standing of my year one MATH121 and PHYS117 final grades. Failure to appeal these final grades within the 21-day deadline may be partly attributed to lack of knowledge and awareness of the appeal process as a first year student at that time. During my time of enrolment in MATH121 and PHYS117 I was experiencing severe emotional stress and turmoil due to family issues. My biological mother has been suffering from severe bipolar disorder for the majority of my youth, where catastrophic events occurred in August of 2014, prior to my arrival at Queen¿¿s. My mother¿¿s mental state worsened immensely during that time, including specific events such as paranoia, delusions, over-sexualized behaviour and attempted suicide. My mother¿¿s mental state continued to progress with periods of time spent in and out of the hospital, including a second suicide attempt during the winter term of the academic calendar in my first year. After having already suffered a devastating event, the loss of my 6-year old sister to cancer in 2007, my parent¿¿s marriage was severely strained and they separated shortly after the psychotic episode in 2014. That being said, I arrived at Queen¿¿s in the fall under extreme emotional duress, that of which persisted throughout the academic year. With the loss of my family home and the family that once filled it, throughout my first year I worked to the best of my ability through periods of undiagnosed depressive states, frequent panic attacks and anxiety.
I do not believe that the extremely low grades of D and D+, seen in PHYS117 and MATH121 respectively, is representative of my scholastic abilities. These subjects are traditionally areas I struggle in, therefore my extenuating circumstances did not allow me to learn clearly, understand effectively or succeed to my full potential. Since first year, I have been able to seek help and my emotional state has drastically improved. I believe that this improvement can be reflected in my increased academic performance in my second year at Queen¿¿s.
The appeal of these grades is of particular importance to me at this point in my academic career because I am extremely unhappy in my BSc degree plan, and wish to transfer into the Second-Year Advanced Standing Nursing program. With a desperation to escape the reality of my family life at the time, I accepted my offer from Queen¿¿s into a program that I was not sure about, and as a result my mental and academic performance suffered. Acknowledging this, I have since spent the summer working with special needs children where have found a passion and commitment to pursue a career in nursing; an area of study that I am truly interested in. I believe that appealing these grades will increase my chance of admittance into this program. Thank you for your consideration.