Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Louise Winn,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing you today in correspondence to appealing my D in ANAT 215 (Fall, 2017) and MICR 221 (Winter, 2018), respectively, to receive a credit standing (CR) designation.
Due to psychological distress brought forth by mental illness which had not been addressed at the time, compounded with the passing of my grandmother, my academic success suffered. I would like to begin by first explaining why I am addressing the issue beyond the typical appeal deadlines. Due to the psychological distress, I was faced with during the entirety of my second year, I had done everything within myself to forget about the year and move forward. Retrospectively speaking I do understand that this may not have the best course of action, but it was my coping mechanism and for me, it was the beginning of resolving the issue. I would now like to address how the aforementioned extenuating circumstances affected my academic performance. At the start of my second year, I knew I was dealing with anxiety, but I was under the impression that most students were and that this was simply the nature of academic stresses. However, certain events occurred repeatedly in the first semester that caused this to progress towards something much more serious. I found myself losing sleep and dealing with issues that oftentimes occurred during periods of testing (midterms, exams, etc.). This carried forward into the second semester and with the passing of my grandmother, another layer of distress was added. Due to these extenuating circumstances, my grades suffered especially in courses that were academically demanding. My decision to appeal ANAT 215 (Fall, 2017) and MICR 221 (Winter, 2018) stems from the fact that I understand second-year life sciences is an academically rigorous program and grades like the C, I received in CHEM 281 and BCHM 218 are possible. However, given my prior and now future academic performance it stands as a clear outlier in my abilities. ANAT 215 and MICR 221 are both courses that require significant effort to succeed and having to deal with my personal issues made it difficult to allocate the appropriate time. I also understand that there may be scrutiny on why I received A¿¿s during this period, however, it can be noted that the courses where I excelled or improved in are historically known to be easier and my aptitude for chemistry as seen by CHEM 112 affirms this as well. I have thought about this decision critically and I hope that you are able to see the direct correlation between my performance in ANAT 215 (Fall, 2017) and MICR 221 (Winter, 2018) and the psychological distress I faced.
When speaking of my future plan I can assure you that measures were taken to make changes. Following the events that triggered psychological distress, I decided to remove myself from the originating source of the situation and took upon journaling as a method of coping. I still find it extremely difficult to address the issue publicly but have finally opened up to my mother who has been providing me with tremendous support. During my second-year summer, I really found what I was passionate about and started to tailor my courses and learnings towards courses that I was genuinely interested in. As can be seen with my grades in the third year and my projected grades for Fall 2019, I have been coping very well with my psychological stress and with my new approach to learning, I have truly been able to succeed. I am also planning on coming back for a fifth year to allow me to take more courses of interest and complete my CIB in preparation for my GMAT. I truly hope that this letter was able to convey to you my ANAT 215 (Fall, 2017) and MICR 221 (Winter, 2018), grades should receive a credit standing (CR) designation as these grades are outliers brought forth my extenuating circumstances which greatly affected my abilities in academically rigorous courses.

Thank you,
Shivam Patel