Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean (Studies):

RE: Appeal to add a course past the academic deadline

I am submitting my appeal to add PSYC 370, Brain and Behavior II, to my Winter 2017 semester. The lecture section for this course is 001 and the class number is 5292. There is space available in this class and I have received permission from both the course instructor, Dr. Janet Menard, and the undergraduate chair of the department, Dr. Jill Atkinson.

The basis of my appeal falls under the category of unusual academic event. I am currently enrolled in five courses, one of which is MATH 339, Evolutionary Game Theory. The content and structure of MATH 339 has changed dramatically this year. The professor has admitted that the content no longer falls under the field of evolutionary game theory. Additionally, the professor has told students that the course has been heavily altered to reflect his interests as it is his last year instructing it. I believe the course has been altered enough that the prerequisite of MATH 121 no longer provides sufficient background knowledge to be successful in the course. Unfortunately, I did not realize this until after the academic deadline as very little material was covered in the first two weeks of class. One of the classes only introduced the professor and went over the mark break down and I missed a class travelling to Toronto to interview for a summer research position at The Hospital for Sick Children.

Dropping MATH 339 from my semester is not directly the cause of my appeal. I am in my final semester of my fourth year at Queen's and have always had a full course load of five courses each semester. Additionally, I have taken 21.0 units of summer courses. Because of this, I would still be able to graduate with four courses this semester and meet all requirements of my Life Sciences major. However, I am applying to medical schools in the fall of this year. Several of the medical schools I will be applying to have a very strict policy on applicants maintaining a full course load throughout their entire undergraduate degree. Additionally, other medical schools have requirements of at least three 300 level or above courses in each semester of your third and fourth years. I am incredibly fearful that not being able to add an additional course to my final semester at Queen's will negatively impact my chances of becoming a physician, a career that I have been working towards for the majority of my life.

I have contacted Dr. Janet Menard and she has agreed to hold a make-up midterm and has advised on how to best cover the material I have missed. I have arranged with peers in the class to receive their annotated lecture notes and it will not be a problem for me to catch up on the course during the upcoming reading week. My cumulative GPA is 3.82 and I am confident that a late enrollment will not affect my performance in the course.

Thank you for your time and consideration, it is greatly appreciated.

Neil Patterson 10068103