Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

Greetings I am Yufei Guo,¿ a first-year student in Arts & Science department.¿ I have been suspended for a whole year due to my unsatisfactory GPA score which is lower than 0.6. According to the rule, I should restart my school work in the summer of 2018, but I sincerely hope to go back to school in the winter of 2017. ¿

If it does not bother you too much, I hope to explain a little bit about my poor academic performance. I do think this is related to my mental conditions. Depression has a huge impact on my daily life and I even cannot tell when and why depression has gradually infiltrated into my life. It slows down my pace a lot so I can barely finish any schedule. Negative thoughts grow in my mind which makes me more impatient and anxious. I tend to be frustrated for almost two weeks without finishing any single task. I can not even let myself enjoy any entertainment. I just stay in the dorm and count time with the hope that it can pass much faster. What even worse is that I have no friends here.¿ I used to be surrounded by friends but nowadays it seems purely impossible. I have been trying to comfort my self that being alone means having the most freedom while I can not lie to myself that I am so jealous for those who have friends¿¿ support and care.¿

With this mental disorder, my mind is totally blank when I am in the class. Although I was sitting there with a notebook and looking at the professor, I learned nothing after a class. Also due to the language barrier, if I was not 100 concentrated, I would fail to understand what the professor is talking about. Even though I am not devoted to coursework, I do feel exhausted when I get back home and can only lay down immediately.¿

But it is not always that I am in a bad mood. When I am feeling better, I like to do some cleaning work at home and have a clear plan for all kinds of stuff.¿ Sadly, sooner or later, I lost control of my mind and depression hits me again.¿ I do feel like a positive cycle can be built up if I insist on doing one single thing well at the beginning and this will gradually give me more confidence for all the other things in my life. Doing sports is something that always lightens my life. I tend to follow my schedule after some exercise.

I have been trying very hard to adjust my mental situation and conquer my depression. I have got help from a private coach to watch me do exercise three days out of one week. I know reading books is very important. I have been able to study in the library for quite a long time. I know I am in the right direction and everything is getting better.¿ I do believe with such progress, I can successfully finish the school work in the coming semester. Yes,¿ I am ready for school now. I wish I can get trust and support from school as well. Please offer me one more chance to prove myself. We humans can not avoid but be making mistakes. I think learning from the mistake is more important which also serves as a warning.

If I was able to get approval from school and recover school work in the coming winter, I will try very hard to catch up with my classmates and enrich my everyday life with positive things Thank you very much. I look forward to your reply.


Best regards,

Yufei Guo