Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I request to appeal my marks from first and second year on the premises that I did not have the mental capacity to fulfill the demands of the courses that I took. I had no knowledge that my inability to stay focus and to stay motivated in class was due to an innate disability that was discovered recently.

For the majority of my life, I have been depressed, but I was unable to figure out the cause of my depression. I believed that being unable to focus was normal. My inability to maintain focus impacted my ability to be motivated. Throughout my life, I have never been able to accomplish any of my goals as I would always forfeit half-way. My inability to be motivated left me depressed and unable to function within the normality of society.

This trait can be reflected in my academics in my first two years of university, as I was unable to motivate myself to go to class or achieve good grades. An explanation for my poor grades in my first two years is my lack of attendance. Fully participating in a classroom has always been a challenge, as I have never had the ability to maintain focus. Hence, when I was given the responsibility of attending my lectures, I failed to do so as I knew I would not be productive in class. Having a past of ¿¿being a failure,¿ it further decreased my motivation to do well in school. I innately knew that I would never be able to accomplish to anything as I lacked the focus and drive of my peers. I took the classes as a ¿¿means to an end.¿

In my third year, my grades did improve significantly. However, the mechanism for achieving these grades was unhealthy. As I stated before I was depressed in my second year of study, which led to reckless behaviors, which inevitably led to sexual harassment. The event triggered an eating disorder as I developed anorexia to cope. In order to distract myself from my hunger, I divulged into my academics, achieving academic success with minor lapses due to my inability to concentrate during my finals due to extreme hunger. Even though I achieved relatively good grades, I knew I could have done better as I was still unable to maintain focus. Anorexia allowed me to appreciate my academics, as I knew I was capable of achieving the grades. In many ways I am thankful I had anorexia as it allowed me to understand that I had the capacity to be good at my academics. However, anorexia is a debilitating disease that caused significant health complications. As I progressed with my anorexia, my obsession with weightless and dieting increased to the level where I was unable to function normally. I also knew that I would not be able to amount to anything, as anorexia was only a short-term solution to my academics. Hence, I never pursued my goal of attending law school and never requested to submit an appeal for the grades.

In January, I was admitted to an eating disorder program. However, I was unable to recover and it led to the development of bulimia. I was then admitted to Toronto General Hospital in March to receive treatment for bulimia. As much as I wanted to recover, I relapsed once I left treatment, which left me to seek a psychiatrist. My psychiatrist hypothesized that I may have ADHD which would account for majority of the symptoms that I displayed and my inability to recover from bulimia. I have been prescribed medication which has helped significantly. I am able to maintain focus which has motivated me to want to advance myself and to follow my childhood dream of going to Law School. I have been doing well academically and I know I have the intellectual capacity to attend Law School as I have done fairly well in my LSATS. However, my inability to focus hindered my application to law school, as law school has been relatively notorious for assigning long readings. I am captivated by the diversity of law, however I do not think I would have been able to do the assigned readings despite my desire to accomplish them. Being given the diagnosis of ADHD solves the puzzle, as I know have the capability to maintain focus. With the knowledge of my diagnosis and medication, I am better able to adapt to situations.

With the diagnosis, my life has been drastically different, as I know I am able to achieve the goals that I once had. However, I believe I am constrained by my past. As much as I want to apply to law school, I know that my grades in my first two years will never allow me to get in. With the competitive nature of the application process, my cumulative GPA would give any law school a reason to doubt my capabilities as an individual. I do not believe that my grades or attitude that I had in my first two years reflect the individual that I am and I do not wish for it to hinder my chances of achieving a childhood dream.