Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 2528
Submitted: July 31, 2016 at 8:19:14 PM
First Name: Alexander
Last Name: Momani
Student Number: 10112649
Email: 13am56@queensu.ca
Degree Program: BAH
Plan: PHIL
Level of Study: 2
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Waive the 21-day or one term deadline
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: I am appealing to be able to submit an appeal past the 21 day deadline. The circumstances that led to the late appeal are one and the same with the circumstances that led to my poor academic performance of this year and I feel I should explain the whole issue to give you an understanding.
What has made my second year difficult was a psychological disorder that negatively affected not just academics, but all areas of my life. I've had this condition for years, but in second year a particularly serious acute episode began. In previous years the condition did hurt my academics but not to the extent it did during the episode in second year. While the year started off okay, the condition began to manifest itself through disorganization, impulsivity, and severe procrastination on October. Initially this began as procrastinating on doing work early, but it quickly turned into being constantly late for both submitting work and going to classes. I fell behind on studies virtually across the board, and to compensate I tried to force myself to improve by dedicating more time and effort on the courses I struggled with. This was to no avail, instead I neglected my social life, sleep, extracurricular participation, and health, all of which made the problem worse as it became a downward spiral as the semester went on; all courses were negatively affected but some more than others.
The entire time I still thought I could do it on my own, continually planning how I can get back on track, but all plans failed to come to fruition. I experienced panic attacks and mental breakdowns on several occasions as things became worse in November. I also began to neglect things I enjoyed such as hobbies (I like writing) and going out with friends. It was by exam time (December) that I realized that this problem was a manifestation of a psychological disorder since no matter how much effort I was putting, it wasn't enough for me to solve it on my own. I then sought help from counselling.
I had plans to improve in second semester, but counselling alone as not much help. Things were at their worst at this time (January, February) as it was overwhelming to try to improve my condition while juggling courses and still having fundamental like sleep in disarray; even basic tasks were extremely difficult as I was an anxious and depressed mess. I decided to go back home to Toronto in February to see my psychiatrist. I was given medication which helped tremendously, but unfortunately medication cannot fix all the damage overnight. I decided to focus on specific courses that were still relatively fresh (Winter 2016 courses; COGS 200 and CISC 121); these courses were also ones that are more closely aligned with what I wanted to do with my life, which was to go into Artificial Intelligence research (something I figured out this year, which was at least a positive).
Gradually, with the help of slowly improving fundamental habits (e.g. sleep and healthy eating) and medication, things started to improve by March onwards. Very thorough introspection also revealed some of the thought and emotional patterns that underlie my condition, and being aware was helpful. However I still had issues that took a long time to resolve.
I was scared of going to lectures and scared I would be judged, so I still missed class often. The fear crossed over to assignments and tests where I often found myself immobilized by anxiety to get anything done. It felt as if fear ran my life. This carried on with the academic appeal process, something I learned about near the end of second semester, but dreaded going through the process. Really, the academic appeal seemed like the last vestige of my 2015/16 episode and writing it meant I had to lay down a lot of my psychological issues on paper and in truth, writing this has been an enormously difficult process for me. This is why it has taken me longer than the 21 days to submit the appeal.
The episode as taught me lessons on my condition and how it affects me and my schoolwork. I also learned of the importance of health (good food, sleep, and exercise help tremendously). I have continued to cultivate good habits and learning skills to stay on track, as I have become more aware of my condition (April onwards). I have also continued to follow up with my psychiatrist and will use counselling services at Queen's to supplement during next year. Although my conditions has not been 'cured', it has improved and is being managed; I feel more prepared to start next year fresh.
Knowing what I want to do with life, I want to switch to the School of Computing and pursue a Cognitive Science major, though unfortunately I couldn't switch programs due to my low GPA, which was too low only from being dropped down from what happened in second year. I have hopes that with the appeal, I can change programs and take the necessary courses for the new plan. What I want from the academic appeal is to not have the circumstances of this year permanently affect my grades or ruin my academic career. Ultimately I want a second chance. I hope you can provide me with this second chance.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter,
Alex Momani
What has made my second year difficult was a psychological disorder that negatively affected not just academics, but all areas of my life. I've had this condition for years, but in second year a particularly serious acute episode began. In previous years the condition did hurt my academics but not to the extent it did during the episode in second year. While the year started off okay, the condition began to manifest itself through disorganization, impulsivity, and severe procrastination on October. Initially this began as procrastinating on doing work early, but it quickly turned into being constantly late for both submitting work and going to classes. I fell behind on studies virtually across the board, and to compensate I tried to force myself to improve by dedicating more time and effort on the courses I struggled with. This was to no avail, instead I neglected my social life, sleep, extracurricular participation, and health, all of which made the problem worse as it became a downward spiral as the semester went on; all courses were negatively affected but some more than others.
The entire time I still thought I could do it on my own, continually planning how I can get back on track, but all plans failed to come to fruition. I experienced panic attacks and mental breakdowns on several occasions as things became worse in November. I also began to neglect things I enjoyed such as hobbies (I like writing) and going out with friends. It was by exam time (December) that I realized that this problem was a manifestation of a psychological disorder since no matter how much effort I was putting, it wasn't enough for me to solve it on my own. I then sought help from counselling.
I had plans to improve in second semester, but counselling alone as not much help. Things were at their worst at this time (January, February) as it was overwhelming to try to improve my condition while juggling courses and still having fundamental like sleep in disarray; even basic tasks were extremely difficult as I was an anxious and depressed mess. I decided to go back home to Toronto in February to see my psychiatrist. I was given medication which helped tremendously, but unfortunately medication cannot fix all the damage overnight. I decided to focus on specific courses that were still relatively fresh (Winter 2016 courses; COGS 200 and CISC 121); these courses were also ones that are more closely aligned with what I wanted to do with my life, which was to go into Artificial Intelligence research (something I figured out this year, which was at least a positive).
Gradually, with the help of slowly improving fundamental habits (e.g. sleep and healthy eating) and medication, things started to improve by March onwards. Very thorough introspection also revealed some of the thought and emotional patterns that underlie my condition, and being aware was helpful. However I still had issues that took a long time to resolve.
I was scared of going to lectures and scared I would be judged, so I still missed class often. The fear crossed over to assignments and tests where I often found myself immobilized by anxiety to get anything done. It felt as if fear ran my life. This carried on with the academic appeal process, something I learned about near the end of second semester, but dreaded going through the process. Really, the academic appeal seemed like the last vestige of my 2015/16 episode and writing it meant I had to lay down a lot of my psychological issues on paper and in truth, writing this has been an enormously difficult process for me. This is why it has taken me longer than the 21 days to submit the appeal.
The episode as taught me lessons on my condition and how it affects me and my schoolwork. I also learned of the importance of health (good food, sleep, and exercise help tremendously). I have continued to cultivate good habits and learning skills to stay on track, as I have become more aware of my condition (April onwards). I have also continued to follow up with my psychiatrist and will use counselling services at Queen's to supplement during next year. Although my conditions has not been 'cured', it has improved and is being managed; I feel more prepared to start next year fresh.
Knowing what I want to do with life, I want to switch to the School of Computing and pursue a Cognitive Science major, though unfortunately I couldn't switch programs due to my low GPA, which was too low only from being dropped down from what happened in second year. I have hopes that with the appeal, I can change programs and take the necessary courses for the new plan. What I want from the academic appeal is to not have the circumstances of this year permanently affect my grades or ruin my academic career. Ultimately I want a second chance. I hope you can provide me with this second chance.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter,
Alex Momani
Documentation
Professional Letter: doctor_letter.pdf
Decision Letters
Amendment to Appeal 2528
Relevant Petition: 2528
First Name: Alexander
Last Name: Momani
Student Number: 10112649
Email: 13am56@queensu.ca
Degree Program: BAH
Plan: PHIL
Level of Study: 2
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Code: MATH 111
Term: Fall/Winter
Year: 2015
Petition Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Code: CISC 102
Term: Fall
Year: 2015
Petition Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Code: STAT 263
Term: Fall
Year: 2015
Petition Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Code: PHIL 250
Term: Fall/Winter
Year: 2015
Petition Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: I am appealing to drop several courses in the 2015/2016 year past the deadline.
What has made my second year difficult was a psychological disorder that negatively affected not just academics, but all areas of my life. I've had this condition for years, but in second year a particularly serious acute episode began. In previous years the condition did hurt my academics but not to the extent it did during the episode in second year. While the year started off okay, the condition began to manifest itself through disorganization, impulsivity, and severe procrastination on October. Initially this began as procrastinating on doing work early, but it quickly turned into being constantly late for both submitting work and going to classes as Fall went on. I fell behind on studies virtually across the board, and to compensate I tried to force myself to improve by dedicating more time and effort on the courses I struggled with. This was to no avail, instead I neglected my social life, sleep, extracurricular participation, and health, all of which made the problem worse as it became a downward spiral as the semester went on; all courses were negatively affected but some more than others.
The entire time I still thought I could do it on my own, continually planning how I can get back on track, but all plans failed to come to fruition. I experienced panic attacks and mental breakdowns on several occasions as things became worse in November. I also began to neglect things I enjoyed such as hobbies (I like writing) and going out with friends. It was by exam time (December) that I realized that this problem was a manifestation of a psychological disorder since no matter how much effort I was putting, it wasn't enough for me to solve it on my own. I then sought help from counselling.
I had plans to improve in second semester, but counselling alone did not help much. Things were at their worst at this time (January, February) as it was overwhelming to try to improve my condition while juggling courses and still having fundamental things like sleep in disarray; even basic tasks were extremely difficult as I was an anxious and depressed mess. I decided to go back home to Toronto in February to see my psychiatrist. I was given medication which helped tremendously, but unfortunately medication cannot fix all the damage overnight. I decided to focus on specific courses that were still relatively fresh (Winter 2016 courses; COGS 200 and CISC 121); these courses were also ones that are more closely aligned with what I wanted to do with my life, which was to go into Artificial Intelligence research (something I figured out this year, which was at least a positive).
Gradually, with the help of slowly improving fundamental habits (e.g. sleep and healthy eating) and medication, things started to improve by March onwards. Very thorough introspection also revealed some of the thought and emotional patterns that underlie my condition, and being aware was helpful. However I still had issues that took a long time to resolve.
I was scared of going to lectures and scared I would be judged, so I still missed class often. The fear crossed over to assignments and tests where I often found myself immobilized by anxiety to get anything done. It felt as if fear ran my life. This carried on with the academic appeal process, something I learned about near the end of second semester, but dreaded going through the process. Really, the academic appeal seemed like the last vestige of my 2015/16 episode and writing it meant I had to lay down a lot of my psychological issues on paper and in truth, writing this has been an enormously difficult process for me. This is why it has taken me very long to go through the process as it was also a revisiting of the most emotionally turbulent times I¿¿ve had in years.
The episode has taught me lessons on my condition and how it affects me and my schoolwork. I also learned of the importance of health (good food, sleep, and exercise help tremendously). I have continued to cultivate good habits and learning skills to stay on track, as I have become more aware of my condition (April onwards). I have also continued to follow up with my psychiatrist and will use counselling services at Queen's to supplement during next year. Although my conditions has not been 'cured', it has improved and is being managed; I feel more prepared to start next year fresh.
Knowing what I want to do with life, I want to switch to the School of Computing and pursue a Cognitive Science major, though unfortunately I couldn't switch programs due to my low GPA, which was too low only from being dropped down from what happened in second year. I have hopes that with the appeal, I can change programs and take the necessary courses for the new plan. What I want from the academic appeal is to not have the circumstances of this year permanently affect my grades or ruin my academic career. Ultimately I want a second chance. I hope you can provide me with this second chance.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter,
Alex Momani
What has made my second year difficult was a psychological disorder that negatively affected not just academics, but all areas of my life. I've had this condition for years, but in second year a particularly serious acute episode began. In previous years the condition did hurt my academics but not to the extent it did during the episode in second year. While the year started off okay, the condition began to manifest itself through disorganization, impulsivity, and severe procrastination on October. Initially this began as procrastinating on doing work early, but it quickly turned into being constantly late for both submitting work and going to classes as Fall went on. I fell behind on studies virtually across the board, and to compensate I tried to force myself to improve by dedicating more time and effort on the courses I struggled with. This was to no avail, instead I neglected my social life, sleep, extracurricular participation, and health, all of which made the problem worse as it became a downward spiral as the semester went on; all courses were negatively affected but some more than others.
The entire time I still thought I could do it on my own, continually planning how I can get back on track, but all plans failed to come to fruition. I experienced panic attacks and mental breakdowns on several occasions as things became worse in November. I also began to neglect things I enjoyed such as hobbies (I like writing) and going out with friends. It was by exam time (December) that I realized that this problem was a manifestation of a psychological disorder since no matter how much effort I was putting, it wasn't enough for me to solve it on my own. I then sought help from counselling.
I had plans to improve in second semester, but counselling alone did not help much. Things were at their worst at this time (January, February) as it was overwhelming to try to improve my condition while juggling courses and still having fundamental things like sleep in disarray; even basic tasks were extremely difficult as I was an anxious and depressed mess. I decided to go back home to Toronto in February to see my psychiatrist. I was given medication which helped tremendously, but unfortunately medication cannot fix all the damage overnight. I decided to focus on specific courses that were still relatively fresh (Winter 2016 courses; COGS 200 and CISC 121); these courses were also ones that are more closely aligned with what I wanted to do with my life, which was to go into Artificial Intelligence research (something I figured out this year, which was at least a positive).
Gradually, with the help of slowly improving fundamental habits (e.g. sleep and healthy eating) and medication, things started to improve by March onwards. Very thorough introspection also revealed some of the thought and emotional patterns that underlie my condition, and being aware was helpful. However I still had issues that took a long time to resolve.
I was scared of going to lectures and scared I would be judged, so I still missed class often. The fear crossed over to assignments and tests where I often found myself immobilized by anxiety to get anything done. It felt as if fear ran my life. This carried on with the academic appeal process, something I learned about near the end of second semester, but dreaded going through the process. Really, the academic appeal seemed like the last vestige of my 2015/16 episode and writing it meant I had to lay down a lot of my psychological issues on paper and in truth, writing this has been an enormously difficult process for me. This is why it has taken me very long to go through the process as it was also a revisiting of the most emotionally turbulent times I¿¿ve had in years.
The episode has taught me lessons on my condition and how it affects me and my schoolwork. I also learned of the importance of health (good food, sleep, and exercise help tremendously). I have continued to cultivate good habits and learning skills to stay on track, as I have become more aware of my condition (April onwards). I have also continued to follow up with my psychiatrist and will use counselling services at Queen's to supplement during next year. Although my conditions has not been 'cured', it has improved and is being managed; I feel more prepared to start next year fresh.
Knowing what I want to do with life, I want to switch to the School of Computing and pursue a Cognitive Science major, though unfortunately I couldn't switch programs due to my low GPA, which was too low only from being dropped down from what happened in second year. I have hopes that with the appeal, I can change programs and take the necessary courses for the new plan. What I want from the academic appeal is to not have the circumstances of this year permanently affect my grades or ruin my academic career. Ultimately I want a second chance. I hope you can provide me with this second chance.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter,
Alex Momani
Documentation
Professional Letter: doctor_letter-0.pdf