Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello,

I am requesting to drop this course for two main reasons. First, we did not receive our first returned grade until last week despite the fact that we completed our first deliverable in Week 3. This assignment was worth 17 and I did not do particularly well on it. Due the fact that we received this mark so late I had no idea of how I was doing in this course until after Nov. 2, or else I probably would have dropped it. Additionally, I have recently been forced to return home as my dad has fallen ill and has been hospitalized. My mother works away from home during the days and I have two younger siblings that I am responsible for taking care of while she has gone. This added responsibility has made schooling that much more difficult. I was already feeling overwhelmed and now I am feeling like completing this semester with decent grades will be impossible. Knowing now that I am not doing well in CISC 457 it would be incredibly beneficial to drop this class so I can focus on my family and the courses I am doing well in. As mentioned, had I known my status in this course prior to Nov.2 I would have dropped it. Also, at the time I was still in Kingston and I only had myself and my academics to worry about and not my two younger siblings to take care of. Normally I would accept this outcome by I plan on graduating this year and I need to maintain a certain GPA to do so and I am worried that staying enrolled in this course will jeopardize my ability to do so. Getting out of this course is very important to me and I hope that you can empathize with my situation. If you need any more information regarding my situation I would be happy to comply.

All the best,
Grant

Hello, apologies for the delay life has been busy. So, as I mentioned, in the course I am considering dropping I did not receive any sort of feed back until nov 10 (after the nov 2 deadline) despite the fact we submitted the assignment on oct 2 and had 2 more deliverables prior to the deadline that I have still not received marks for. I had zero indication of my standing in the course prior to the deadline. In a normal circumstance this would be fine but this assignment was worth 17 and was only graded out of 9 marks. Had I known I had done so poorly on this assignment that was worth such a high percentage I would have immediately dropped it. However, I did not know until after the fact. This semester has been very demanding. Over the course of 12 weeks I have been required to submit 40 deliverables (3.3 per week) each of which take about a week to complete as upper year comp sci assignments. In addition, the circumstances surrounding the pandemic including limited access to academic resources and additional responsibilities at home have made this semester incredibly stressful. I am trying to graduate this winter and am hoping to finish out this hectic semester strong. Being able to drop this class will allow me to focus on doing well in my remaining classes and will allow me to maintain better physical and mental health. Currently, I have no time to do anything other than school and I am really starting to feel the repercussions. Sacrificing my gpa and overall well being only to finish with a poor mark in this class seems very unfair when I received no sort of feedback until after nov 2. Thank you for your time and I hope you can empathize with my situation. Please let me know if you require any more information from me. All the best, Grant