Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am writing to respectfully request a late withdrawal without penalty from this course. I sincerely apologize for submitting this request so late, which has past the withdrawal deadline. During this semester, I was heavily affected by unexpected extenuating circumstances, together with the pressure of final exams. These issues made me miss the midterm exam and also affected my final exam performance. I would like to explain the situation clearly.
On October 7th, I suddenly received heartbreaking news from home that my grandmother passed away. This loss was extremely painful to me. Since my parents worked in another city when I was young, I grew up living with my grandparents. My grandmother accompanied me throughout my entire childhood and played a very important role in my life. Even though I went abroad to study in recent years and had to live apart from her, I always hoped that I could graduate as soon as possible and return to China to take care of her.
Her sudden passing left me completely unprepared. I was in deep shock and sadness, and my mind went blank at that moment. For this reason, I was unable to attend the midterm exam scheduled on the next day (October 8th). In the following days, I became mentally unstable. I often had nightmares and had no energy to get out of bed or communicate with anyone. Because of this state, I was unable to communicate with my professor in time, which caused the 20% weight to become a zero.
On October 10th, I went back to China to attend my grandmother's funeral. My parents became very worried about my mental health condition at that moment and took me to a local hospital for checkup. It was at that moment that I started to realize I might be experiencing depression. The doctor suggested that I should take prescribed medication and continuous consultation. However, by that time the drop-with-refund deadline had already passed. As an international student, my family has used all their savings to support my education abroad. Withdrawing the course at that time would cause additional financial burden to my parents. After calculating my grades, I believed that I still had chance to pass it if I could perform normally in the final exam. Therefore, I forced myself to continue the course and hopefully I could recover soon by taking medication.
Although it was very difficult for me to fully focus on studying like before, I still tried my best to keep up with the coursework and complete all assignments on time. With time passing, I was slowly adjusting my mood and encouraging myself to step out of the sadness from losing my grandmother. Because I had already lost the midterm grade, I placed great importance on the final exam. The pressure was extremely high, and I was very worried that I might fail the course.
On the day of the final exam, November 28th, I am not sure whether it was a relapse of depression or the stress of the exam, but I woke up feeling a bit low emotionally. To prevent my condition from affecting the exam, I took a higher dose of my antidepressant before attending the exam. Unfortunately, during the exam I experienced hand tremors, dizziness, and nausea. I could not stay focused and could not even write properly. After the exam, I contacted my doctor and was told that these symptoms were likely triggered by the increased medication dosage.
Because of this incident, I was unable to finish the exam properly, and my final exam score was extremely low, far below my normal academic level in this course. This directly caused me to fail the course, and it now puts my continuation in the program at serious risk. Failing this course became the third major emotional setback for me within a short period of time after losing my grandmother and suffering from depression.
During the past weeks, as my depressive symptoms slowly improved, I finally gained the ability to understand the university policies and to seek help. Only recently did I have the capacity to organize my thoughts and submit this petition. If I had been in a stable condition earlier, I would have communicated with the university much sooner.
Experiencing these heavy impacts in such a short time has been extremely difficult for me. Therefore, I am requesting a late withdrawal from this course. My performance in this class does not reflect my real academic abilities. The academic difficulties I faced were directly caused by a close family member’s sudden passing and the resulting medical condition, which were completely beyond my control. Even though I tried my best to manage my situation, my overall academic performance this semester was still seriously affected.
As a fourth-year international student, I truly cherish the opportunity to study at Queen’s University. I hope to continue my degree and finish my studies in next semester, so I can return home and reunite with my family as soon as possible.
I have attached my mental health consultation record from October 12th, as well as the medical record from November 28th when I experienced physical discomfort during the exam. These documents support the circumstances I have described above.
Thank you very much for taking the time to review my request. This is my first time to apply such petition in my whole undergraduate study and I sincerely hope the faculty will consider approving my late withdrawal petition.