Petition Letter
To Whom It May Concern,
I have unfortunately come to the conclusion that I will not be able to successfully complete my CISC 499 course. I understand this is my own fault and I take full responsibility for the situation I am in. I am writing this appeal letter to explain my case and ask that you please consider allowing me to drop this course past the official deadline.
Throughout my time that I have spent at Queens University working towards my degree I have always tried my best to maintain my grades. In four and a half years I have never failed a course and until this semester I had never dropped a course past the initial add/drop date early in the semester.
I returned to Queen¿¿s this year, for my fifth year of studies, to finish my degree in computer science as I had transferred from a physics program after my second year. Upon returning this school year, I immediately began to realize that this year would be very different from my previous years at Queen¿¿s. The vast majority of my friends had left the school and I was living with people who I had not met previous to moving in with them. I was already anxious about returning for a fifth year as a result of feeling left behind by my peers who had graduated in four years. The combination of not having a peer support network and having a living arrangement I was not comfortable in only exacerbated this anxiety. The conflicting lifestyles of my housemates and myself resulted in an unhealthy sleeping schedule and I found myself spending the majority of my time alone.
Within the first few months of the school year (September 2018) I thought I had a handle on my academics. However, I came to the realization this was not the case as the semester progressed. I found myself sleeping much later in the day than I normally do, sometimes missing class as a result. I also found that I had very little motivation to do anything, whether it is schoolwork or my hobbies and interests outside of school. As a result of taking a reduced course load I was able to finish the semester with what I would consider ¿¿passable¿ grades, but still felt as though I had not truly succeeded in my courses.
When I returned back in January 2019, I had a difficult time adjusting back into my academic routine, and my schoolwork suffered as a result. I quickly began falling behind in all my courses. After returning from the reading week, I decided that I would need to drop one of my courses. I was doing very poorly and felt I would be unable to recover. I had done this with the hopes that I would be able to focus on my remaining courses and catch up with the material I had been falling behind on. This failure, coupled with the realization that I would have to return for another year (or semester) was very difficult for me to cope with.
I¿¿ve never considered myself to be depressed before and I still don¿¿t think I would label what I am going through as depression. But at the midpoint of this semester I started to feel like I had reached an all time low with my life. I constantly found myself consumed in negative thoughts, my self-esteem was at its lowest, and I took absolutely no interest in my regular hobbies. I had no motivation to stick to my academic routine as I was in such an unhealthy mental state. I have struggled to be successful in my two other courses. Because of the structure and difficulty of this course (CISC 499), I have been unable to adequately make up the time I had lost.
Please try to understand that I have always been a good student. I want to show Queen¿¿s and my family of the academic success I know I can achieve. I am very close to finishing my degree and I know that if I am given a second chance I will be able to finish in a way that will make the school and myself proud.
Thank you for considering this appeal,
Sincerely,
Ryan Kartavicius
I have unfortunately come to the conclusion that I will not be able to successfully complete my CISC 499 course. I understand this is my own fault and I take full responsibility for the situation I am in. I am writing this appeal letter to explain my case and ask that you please consider allowing me to drop this course past the official deadline.
Throughout my time that I have spent at Queens University working towards my degree I have always tried my best to maintain my grades. In four and a half years I have never failed a course and until this semester I had never dropped a course past the initial add/drop date early in the semester.
I returned to Queen¿¿s this year, for my fifth year of studies, to finish my degree in computer science as I had transferred from a physics program after my second year. Upon returning this school year, I immediately began to realize that this year would be very different from my previous years at Queen¿¿s. The vast majority of my friends had left the school and I was living with people who I had not met previous to moving in with them. I was already anxious about returning for a fifth year as a result of feeling left behind by my peers who had graduated in four years. The combination of not having a peer support network and having a living arrangement I was not comfortable in only exacerbated this anxiety. The conflicting lifestyles of my housemates and myself resulted in an unhealthy sleeping schedule and I found myself spending the majority of my time alone.
Within the first few months of the school year (September 2018) I thought I had a handle on my academics. However, I came to the realization this was not the case as the semester progressed. I found myself sleeping much later in the day than I normally do, sometimes missing class as a result. I also found that I had very little motivation to do anything, whether it is schoolwork or my hobbies and interests outside of school. As a result of taking a reduced course load I was able to finish the semester with what I would consider ¿¿passable¿ grades, but still felt as though I had not truly succeeded in my courses.
When I returned back in January 2019, I had a difficult time adjusting back into my academic routine, and my schoolwork suffered as a result. I quickly began falling behind in all my courses. After returning from the reading week, I decided that I would need to drop one of my courses. I was doing very poorly and felt I would be unable to recover. I had done this with the hopes that I would be able to focus on my remaining courses and catch up with the material I had been falling behind on. This failure, coupled with the realization that I would have to return for another year (or semester) was very difficult for me to cope with.
I¿¿ve never considered myself to be depressed before and I still don¿¿t think I would label what I am going through as depression. But at the midpoint of this semester I started to feel like I had reached an all time low with my life. I constantly found myself consumed in negative thoughts, my self-esteem was at its lowest, and I took absolutely no interest in my regular hobbies. I had no motivation to stick to my academic routine as I was in such an unhealthy mental state. I have struggled to be successful in my two other courses. Because of the structure and difficulty of this course (CISC 499), I have been unable to adequately make up the time I had lost.
Please try to understand that I have always been a good student. I want to show Queen¿¿s and my family of the academic success I know I can achieve. I am very close to finishing my degree and I know that if I am given a second chance I will be able to finish in a way that will make the school and myself proud.
Thank you for considering this appeal,
Sincerely,
Ryan Kartavicius