Petition Letter
To the Academic Petitions Committee,
I am writing to petition for a review of my grade in MATH 110. At the start of my 2024/2025 school year, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and has been undergoing ongoing treatment ever since. This took a heavy toll on my mental health and my ability to stay focused throughout the year.
MATH 110 is a rigorous course that requires you to be focused 24/7, constantly attend lectures, and continuously build upon previously learned knowledge throughout the entire year. Given everything I was dealing with at home, I experienced a severe underperformance in this course that I don't believe reflects my true academic ability.
I only recently found out about the CR option, and since I was unaware of it at the time, I made the decision to retake the course this year hoping to improve my GPA and show what I was actually capable of. However, cancer treatment isn't so linear. My mom's health has continued to take a toll on me, which significantly impacted my performance this year as well. This wasn't something I anticipated when I chose to retake the course. I went in with genuine commitment and the hope that things would be more stable.
I really want to maintain a high GPA because I want to go into a master's program for machine learning, and I'm afraid that my MATH 110 performance could hinder that goal. I just want my record to reflect who I actually am as a student, and not the incredibly difficult circumstances I've been navigating.
I am happy to provide supporting documentation including medical records related to my mother's diagnosis and treatment. Thank you for taking the time to consider my situation.
I am writing to petition for a review of my grade in MATH 110. At the start of my 2024/2025 school year, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and has been undergoing ongoing treatment ever since. This took a heavy toll on my mental health and my ability to stay focused throughout the year.
MATH 110 is a rigorous course that requires you to be focused 24/7, constantly attend lectures, and continuously build upon previously learned knowledge throughout the entire year. Given everything I was dealing with at home, I experienced a severe underperformance in this course that I don't believe reflects my true academic ability.
I only recently found out about the CR option, and since I was unaware of it at the time, I made the decision to retake the course this year hoping to improve my GPA and show what I was actually capable of. However, cancer treatment isn't so linear. My mom's health has continued to take a toll on me, which significantly impacted my performance this year as well. This wasn't something I anticipated when I chose to retake the course. I went in with genuine commitment and the hope that things would be more stable.
I really want to maintain a high GPA because I want to go into a master's program for machine learning, and I'm afraid that my MATH 110 performance could hinder that goal. I just want my record to reflect who I actually am as a student, and not the incredibly difficult circumstances I've been navigating.
I am happy to provide supporting documentation including medical records related to my mother's diagnosis and treatment. Thank you for taking the time to consider my situation.

