Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 2402
Submitted: June 15, 2016 at 5:15:57 PM
First Name: Reid
Last Name: Talarico
Student Number: 10104731
Email: talarico.reid@queensu.ca
Degree Program: BAH
Plan: APEC
Level of Study: 3
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Code: CISC 101
Term: Summer
Year: 2016
Petition Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: June 15, 2016
Office of the Associate Dean (Studies)
Student Services, First Floor Dunning Hall
Queen's University
To Dr. Johanne Bénard:
I am writing to you to request an appeal to drop a course past the academic deadline. Specifically, I wish to drop CISC 101 from my current schedule, and I hope that my inability to complete the course will not negatively impact my academic standing or any short-to-medium term career goals I have.
As of Monday, June 6, 2016 (about a week prior to submitting this appeal), I was on schedule for completing this course and had a good academic standing in the class. As of that Monday, my average assignment grade (out of 4 assignments) was 81.25 and my average quiz grade (out of 3 quizzes) was 73.33. I only state these as an indicator of my continued effort in the course up to that point.
On that same Monday I was scheduled for a last-minute interview with a firm which would give the me the chance to enhance my career opportunities through relevant work experience and an exceptional network of industry contacts. I am happy to say that I received an offer to work at the firm this summer, however that would unfortunately entail me having to relocate (last-minute) away from my hometown. This internship would require me to bring my own laptop to work, which was a problem given that I had been solely using my family desktop computer for any computer-activities up to that point (including my course deliverables in CISC 101) and my only laptop was in the repair-shop. I in-part solved this problem by securing a loaner-laptop in the interim, however when I attempted to download the necessary software to continue my studies in the course I was restricted by a preexisting administrative password, which without knowledge of, rendered installing the necessary software (to complete the course) impossible.
Now out-of-town, I attempted to contact the previous owner for several days(to no avail) to try and solve the problem. So far I have not been successful. I may have alternatively sought to visit a library with the appropriate resources, however even if I had managed to do that, it would not have been feasible to continue the course in good-standing without impeding on my internship responsibilities. My internship schedule requires me to be at work from 9am-5pm every day, however like most workers in my field, I'm almost always in the office later than those times. In addition to that, I commute to work everyday (which takes a cumulative 2 hours, daily), and must dedicate at least 2 hours a day to study for external certification required in my industry (of which I intend to sit for exam in early July).
Overall, these hardware/software restrictions & my time restrictions make it very infeasible for me to complete this course. The situation with the former laptop-owner caused me to miss the submission of three course deliverables (together worth 10-11 of my final grade) and has made it very difficult to practically study for the final exam (which is on June 16 and worth 45 of my final grade) these past 9 days. Even if these hardware restrictions were not a factor, my career-decision forced me to find a new home (in a new town), relocate, and settle into work, all within a 48-hour timespan. It is for these reasons that I cannot complete this course, and request an appeal to drop CISC 101 after the academic deadline so as to not affect my cumulative academic standing.
I want to emphasize that this will not happen again in the future. My experience in this firm will allow me (so long as I don't receive an F-grade in CISC 101 or any other course this year) to seek out full-time work this during the traditional recruiting cycle for Summer 2017, instead of making a last-minute impromptu relocation in the middle of the academic-term. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, I do wish to further pursue studies through the school of computing. Although I am fully committed to finishing my degree in Applied Economics, my month of studies in CISC 101 has opened my eyes to the creative possibilities of programming; something that my primary field of study doesn't offer. I really enjoyed the course, and I know (given my performance on assignments) that I can do well in future CISC courses I choose to take, which I definitely intend to do.
Thank you for considering my request for appeal.
Reid Talarico
Office of the Associate Dean (Studies)
Student Services, First Floor Dunning Hall
Queen's University
To Dr. Johanne Bénard:
I am writing to you to request an appeal to drop a course past the academic deadline. Specifically, I wish to drop CISC 101 from my current schedule, and I hope that my inability to complete the course will not negatively impact my academic standing or any short-to-medium term career goals I have.
As of Monday, June 6, 2016 (about a week prior to submitting this appeal), I was on schedule for completing this course and had a good academic standing in the class. As of that Monday, my average assignment grade (out of 4 assignments) was 81.25 and my average quiz grade (out of 3 quizzes) was 73.33. I only state these as an indicator of my continued effort in the course up to that point.
On that same Monday I was scheduled for a last-minute interview with a firm which would give the me the chance to enhance my career opportunities through relevant work experience and an exceptional network of industry contacts. I am happy to say that I received an offer to work at the firm this summer, however that would unfortunately entail me having to relocate (last-minute) away from my hometown. This internship would require me to bring my own laptop to work, which was a problem given that I had been solely using my family desktop computer for any computer-activities up to that point (including my course deliverables in CISC 101) and my only laptop was in the repair-shop. I in-part solved this problem by securing a loaner-laptop in the interim, however when I attempted to download the necessary software to continue my studies in the course I was restricted by a preexisting administrative password, which without knowledge of, rendered installing the necessary software (to complete the course) impossible.
Now out-of-town, I attempted to contact the previous owner for several days(to no avail) to try and solve the problem. So far I have not been successful. I may have alternatively sought to visit a library with the appropriate resources, however even if I had managed to do that, it would not have been feasible to continue the course in good-standing without impeding on my internship responsibilities. My internship schedule requires me to be at work from 9am-5pm every day, however like most workers in my field, I'm almost always in the office later than those times. In addition to that, I commute to work everyday (which takes a cumulative 2 hours, daily), and must dedicate at least 2 hours a day to study for external certification required in my industry (of which I intend to sit for exam in early July).
Overall, these hardware/software restrictions & my time restrictions make it very infeasible for me to complete this course. The situation with the former laptop-owner caused me to miss the submission of three course deliverables (together worth 10-11 of my final grade) and has made it very difficult to practically study for the final exam (which is on June 16 and worth 45 of my final grade) these past 9 days. Even if these hardware restrictions were not a factor, my career-decision forced me to find a new home (in a new town), relocate, and settle into work, all within a 48-hour timespan. It is for these reasons that I cannot complete this course, and request an appeal to drop CISC 101 after the academic deadline so as to not affect my cumulative academic standing.
I want to emphasize that this will not happen again in the future. My experience in this firm will allow me (so long as I don't receive an F-grade in CISC 101 or any other course this year) to seek out full-time work this during the traditional recruiting cycle for Summer 2017, instead of making a last-minute impromptu relocation in the middle of the academic-term. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, I do wish to further pursue studies through the school of computing. Although I am fully committed to finishing my degree in Applied Economics, my month of studies in CISC 101 has opened my eyes to the creative possibilities of programming; something that my primary field of study doesn't offer. I really enjoyed the course, and I know (given my performance on assignments) that I can do well in future CISC courses I choose to take, which I definitely intend to do.
Thank you for considering my request for appeal.
Reid Talarico
Documentation
Professional Letter Detail: NO DOC