Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: It is my goal for next year to go into Chemistry. I knew in order to go into that program I would need to take a linear algebra course. Since I did not do my research properly, I thought I had to take Math 111 because I did not know that Math 112 existed. After having a very hard time in Math 111, I looked into the Chemistry program again and realized I only needed to take Math 112. Now that I know about Math 112 I would very much like to take that course instead. I think that I would be able to succeed much more in that course than in Math 111 because Math 112 is an introductory course and is only half year. Math 111 has been very difficult for me and it is very fast paced. Even though I have put in a lot of time and effort to the course, I have not been able to understand the material very well. It is also heavily directed towards the Computer Science program, so I have difficulty understanding the concepts that are related to that subject. I seriously doubt that I will be able to pass the December Exam or the April Exam, which would result in me failing the course. I don¿¿t think I would be able to pass the upcoming tests or assignments either as they are getting more challenging as the year progresses. I am also taking other challenging courses that require a lot of work. I don¿¿t want attempting to understand linear algebra to take up all of my time so that I no longer have time to dedicate to my other courses that are required for me to be in Chemistry next year (Calculus, Chemistry, Physics). If I fail linear algebra, or even pass with a very low grade, this could prevent me from getting into Chemistry next year because it will bring down my gpa by a substantial amount. I don¿¿t want to risk my chance of getting to Chemistry because I made the mistake of taking the harder version of the course. Instead, I would like to take Math 112 next year. I know that I will be able to do significantly better in this course and I will have a much deeper understanding of the content, which will be useful for my other courses in my program. For these reasons, I am asking permission to drop Math 111 even though I am past the deadline.