Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Academics),

I am currently a second-year computing student and I am appealing to drop CISC 251 (Fall, 2020).

The reason for me dropping this course is mainly due to my current family troubles. I come from an immigrant, low-income background supported by my single mother who works tirelessly to provide the most for my little sister and me. This current year especially has been tough on my family as earlier this summer, my mother had lost a year job due to the pandemic, though I was able to fill the gap in expenses as I had acquired a full-time summer internship during that period and we are very grateful for the additional government support received. Now later in the fall, my mother had gotten a new job, though the downside is that it does not pay as much as the previously held job and I also am not working full time at my current job fully provide support. As a result of this, our situation has been quite stressful in dealing with our living expenses throughout this period. I have picked up additional work hours in my part-time programming job to help my family in these past couple of months, and due to that, I have had to make sacrifices elsewhere in coursework. I just have not been able to spend the time and review the material within Data Analytics - CISC 251 for the last month and a half. Due to this, I cannot see myself doing well in this course as I am already catching up with my other computer science courses and working part-time. There is also the other side where I do not want this course to have a negative effect on my GPA as I realize the importance it has in the technology industry for future employers.

I also now realize the importance to plan for achieving academic success in the future. My plan is to take a lighter four-course load next semester as I feel that it strikes the perfect balance for me to deal with my academics and work life. I am also going to be taking additional courses in the summer term to make up for the credits lost and I will be retaking CISC 251 (Data Analytics) the following fall term to make up for the dropped course.

I would be really grateful if you could grant me this appeal as It would help tremendously currently on the time saved.

Sincerely,

Ronan Almeida.