Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Studies),

I am appealing to drop PSYC 452 (Fall, 2017) and PSYC 370 (Winter, 2018) from my transcript. Below, I will outline how I came to receive each failing grade as clearly and effectively as possible.

Upon enrolling in my fourth year courses, I was beyond excited and felt prepared to take on the challenge of my final year. I had planned out my courses well for first semester, and felt extremely fortunate to have been enrolled in PSYC 452, Developmental Psycholinguistics as it encompassed both my minor and major and because it is known to be difficult to get into due to its small class size. As the semester began, I was positive about each of my courses but began experiencing extreme anxiousness halfway (week 5-6) through the semester after realizing I needed to (felt I needed to) ace each course in order to finish my final year strong and boost my cumulative GPA with graduate school in mind. For PSYC 452, the course material, structure and weighting of assignment was very fair and I began feeling frustrated with myself as to why I could not concentrate or stay motivated on a course I had so much interest in. The pressure I had been putting on myself was causing physical ailments such as insomnia, nausea and fainting, complete loss of motivation, appetite and concentration- which ultimately led to me failing to submit 60 of my coursework by the end of the term because I did not submit my final paper or do a class presentation. After weeks of attempting to work on assignments and feeling frozen with loss of focus from pressure and frustration, I experienced my first panic attack in week 10 of classes but remained silent because I thought I could push through it and was in denial that something more serious could be happening. In hindsight, I should have sought help when I began experiencing these symptoms but I felt ashamed and confused as to how I (an upper year student that had been through 3 years of school stress and knew what to expect), could be experiencing and failing to control how I was feeling. After spending so much time trying to (and failing) to work on assignments in my courses by the end of the term, I rationalized that I would try my best to salvage whatever effort I could to focus on my 6.0 unit course (LING 475) to secure at least one good grade (which I thankfully managed). After finishing exams and final papers, I was in the mindset of wanting to drop out but was convinced that the winter break and a fresh start of another semester was all I needed to feel better and get back on track to graduate.

Over the duration of winter break and after inevitably receiving the failing grade, I did not tell my family or anyone that I had actively failed the course (not from lack of knowledge or content difficulty). I justified the failing grade as a rough patch and continued to bury my anxiousness and symptoms by looking forward to a fresh semester. Regretfully, I was stubborn and in denial, and did not believe I needed to contact health professionals. Upon starting second semester, I knew it was a heavy course load of 4 psychology courses and statistics but once again, I justified the amount of coursework being manageable as I told myself it was the final push before graduating. Fast forward a few weeks into the semester, I experienced a fainting episode in the library before one of my midterms. I went to the ER, where the doctor did not know what could have caused it other than stress as a possible indicator after multiple clear test results. For the duration of the semester, my motivation and concentration further declined and led to becoming extremely overwhelmed. This led to finally reaching out for a counseling appointment where I was able to postpone my statistics exam the next day but failed to acknowledge the depth of trouble I was in. I ultimately wrote and failed the PYSC 371 exam, and did very poorly in my other courses.

I did not know that I qualified for an appeal until a casual (unrelated) conversation with a course advisor turned into an hour-long, personal conversation in which the suggestion to try was made due to circumstances. I have since been to multiple personal and group counseling sessions and have worked hard to make lifestyle changes in order to better manage my circumstances. I am currently enrolled in 2 summer courses and have been studying hard to write my STAT 263 exam rescheduled for September. Should I be granted an appeal, I will graduate with a higher GPA and one that I believe reflects my true passion and appreciation for my studies.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Madison Lawson