Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean (Studies),

I am requesting a Credit (CR) Standing for the course PHYS 117.

Due to extenuating circumstances beyond my control, I did not perform as well as I believe I could have in this course as well as others. My mental health has always been a bit of a struggle for me, but this year it became unmanageable. I was suffering from anxiety attacks everyday, which eventually turned into a deep depression. This made it difficult for me to take care of myself, and focus on my courses. Due to my lack of self care I also became ill quite often which caused me to miss more classes. Also due to my depression, I found it difficult to want to attend all my lectures, and when I did attend, my anxiety made it hard to focus. The winter semester was especially harder for me because during this time I was going through a lot of family problems. The main one being that my parents were planning on a divorce which would have resulted in my father moving back to Australia. The thought of my family breaking apart sent me towards a downward spiral that I am still trying to get out of. On top of this, I had my own issues to deal with as I was in a very toxic relationship. This was my first year away from home as well, so I did not have the basic support that I desperately needed from my friends and family. During this time, I tried to reach out to my family, and speak to friends around me because I was afraid that if I went to a doctor they would put me on medication or deem me unfit to attend school. I did not want to do anything to put me further behind, but that mindset of being too afraid to get proper help just made things worse. I am only appealing for this course because I believe I got the grades I deserved in my other courses and am currently retaking BIOL 103. Physics has never been my greatest subject, but I did always manage to do better than average in it. However, due to these circumstances, I feel that I neglected the subject a little more than others, and did not do as well as I would have expected. With this appeal I hope to bring up my GPA so that I have the marks to transfer from Queen's to York University so that I can study from home and get the help that I need. Since the year has ended I have seen doctors and will begin therapy soon to find new and better ways to manage my mental health issues. I need a 2.3 to get into the program I desire from York and I believe that I could have easily achieved these grades had I had the support I needed and had my mental health been up to par. My goal is to do better in school, but the only way to do that is to focus on getting my mental health back to what it was.

Thank you for taking the time to assess my appeal,
I hope to be hearing from you soon.
Amanda Ha