Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

I have just finished my second year as a Biology major at Queen's University. I have come to the realization that I no longer wish to be in Biology and would like to switch degree plans. In order to do this, I need to take SOCY 122 this summer term to be eligible for a Psychology and Sociology medial for September of 2017, or my third year of study at Queen's University. However, I have missed the deadline to add a summer term course, so I am appealing this regulation.

After first year, I believed I wanted to go into Biology. However, after completing second year and getting a better look at what type of courses are offered in Biology, I learned that this area of discipline just isn't for me. I took the mandatory Biology courses and found them uninteresting. In addition, after receiving my marks back from my Biology courses, it is clear that I did not do as well as I would have liked, and will impact me in the future, especially if I hope to get into grad school.

I truly enjoy Psychology courses, as I took a lot of them as electives this year. However, Psychology is a very competitive major to get into, and I just missed the cutoff grade for automatic acceptance. I sought out some advice from the chair of undergraduate studies of the Psychology department, Dr. Jill Atkinson, for my next steps into the future. She suggested I look into a Psychology and Sociology medial, as I mentioned to her that I would love to work with people and discover how they think and operate. She said Sociology would go very nicely with Psychology and could get me where I wanted to go, as Sociology is the study of the development, structure and functioning of human society. As well, I will likely be more successful in my grades received by the end of my four years because I find interest in and feel passionate about the subjects.

Following this, I got into contact with Michelle Underhill, the undergraduate program assistant for the Sociology department. She helped me devise a plan to successfully enter the medial for September 2017. After alternatively looking into completing a course equivalent to SOCY 122 at Athabasca University and coming up empty-handed, she suggested I make an appeal to add SOCY 122 as an academic course for the summer here at Queen's, past the last day to add them, because I need to complete this introductory course to get into the medial for my third year of study. She then went as far as to contact the instructor, Dr. Rob Beamish, and explain my case. He said he would be more than happy to welcome me into his class for the summer term.

As explained above, my appeal is an extenuating circumstance. I had not received my Biology marks back for second year by May 5th, the last day to add a summer course. I did not know that I was going to drastically change my degree plan before May 5th , so I genuinely had no idea I needed to add SOCY 122. Receiving these marks late also caused me to seek out advice from various department administrators after the academic deadline, which shows that I asked for professional advice before making this appeal. Even before I decided to appeal this deadline, I even looked for alternate opportunities to avoid making this appeal by looking for a SOCY 122 course equivalent at Athabasca University. Additionally, I have had lots of help from the Sociology undergraduate program assistant to get me where I needed to go. Ms. Underhill went above and beyond what was required of her, which gives some merit to this appeal, as a Queen's administrative staff would not do this unless the appeal had some validity. Ms. Underhill also mentioned that if you had any questions, you could contact her at 613-533-2162.

Now that I know where I need to be for third year, I will be more certain of my academic decisions in the future. I would appreciate your consideration in this decision. Thank you very much for your time.

Warmest Regards,

Megan Golfetto