Petition Letter
To the Associate Dean,
I am writing to respectfully petition for a waiver of the requirement to withdraw for one year as outlined in my recent academic decision letter dated May 21st. While I understand the seriousness of my current academic situation and accept full responsibility for it, I strongly believe that extenuating circumstances have contributed to my poor academic performance. I have had some time to reflect on the issues that impacted my performance and now believe I know the necessary steps to ensure these challenges no longer affect my academic progress. I am therefore requesting the opportunity to remain enrolled so I can demonstrate my ability to succeed moving forward.
During my first two years at Queen’s, I went through a period where I felt deeply unmotivated and disconnected from my work. Upon reflection, I am certain I was experiencing symptoms related to depression although I was never formally diagnosed at the time as I lacked the awareness and support to seek help for what I was going through. In particular, this affected my ability to make critical administrative decisions regarding my enrollment. Despite recognizing I was falling behind in classes I did not have the mental clarity to drop classes in a timely manner which ultimately led to failing those classes. In these years I continued to carelessly enroll in classes, even enrolling in additional summer classes to try and make-up for my poor GPA. This led to more academic challenges, even semesters where I completely “shut down” and failed all my classes, which continued to unnecessarily worsen my GPA. Looking back, I realize that had I not carelessly enrolled in courses during semesters when I was mentally unwell—and instead withdrawn or postponed those courses—I would likely be in good academic standing today.
After being required to withdraw from the beginning of the Summer 2023 term, I finally began trying to address the underlying issues that impacted my academic performance. I reached out to mental health professionals through AMHS KFLA and gained greater clarity of the challenges I was facing. In particular, I often turned to excessive internet use and self-isolation as coping mechanisms, which worsened my productivity and disconnected me from my studies. While I made progress in managing these habits, I came to realize the deeper issue holding me back: a reluctance to seek academic support out of pride and shame. I felt embarrassed to admit I was struggling, and avoided engaging with classmates, professors, TAs, and other academic resources even when I knew they could help. I continued to apply advice from my counselors, specifically in relation to seeking support, in the summer 2024 term where I managed to achieve a GPA score of 3.52. I was happy with the progress I made that semester and believe it is a better reflection of my academic ability when I am able to manage internal challenges and seek necessary support.
Although I demonstrated improvement in the summer 2024, the past two semesters have proved to be more difficult than I had anticipated and unfortunately relapsed on habits that made my summer 2024 term successful. I stopped regularly checking in with the mental health supports who not only provided advice for the issues I was dealing with, but would hold me accountable. I continued to engage in bad habits that led to challenges in the past, and despite having a better understanding of these issues from my time in counselling, they were often not portrayed under an academic context. This once again led me to self-isolation, ultimately causing me to fall behind again and below the 1.60 GPA threshold.
Recently, I visited my family physician to discuss my mental health issues and took steps to re-engage with support systems I previously neglected. I am lucky enough to personally know a professor in the Department of Computing and reached out to him to discuss the challenges I’ve faced and to seek advice on how to move forward. This was significant for me as despite him not being an academic advisor, it was the first person at the university I was able to open up to. We discussed strategies to better manage my course load, make use of office hours, and build a consistent study schedule. I am also encouraged from seeing that I was able to pass my less “coding-intensive” computing courses in the past year. I do believe this shows some aptitude to succeed in this discipline and hopefully complete my degree. Moving forward, I am determined to rebuild my academic and personal support systems which I have highlighted in my academic plan.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I remain committed to completing my studies at Queen’s and am hopeful for the opportunity to demonstrate my renewed commitment and capability.
Sincerely,
Muhtasim Hasan
I am writing to respectfully petition for a waiver of the requirement to withdraw for one year as outlined in my recent academic decision letter dated May 21st. While I understand the seriousness of my current academic situation and accept full responsibility for it, I strongly believe that extenuating circumstances have contributed to my poor academic performance. I have had some time to reflect on the issues that impacted my performance and now believe I know the necessary steps to ensure these challenges no longer affect my academic progress. I am therefore requesting the opportunity to remain enrolled so I can demonstrate my ability to succeed moving forward.
During my first two years at Queen’s, I went through a period where I felt deeply unmotivated and disconnected from my work. Upon reflection, I am certain I was experiencing symptoms related to depression although I was never formally diagnosed at the time as I lacked the awareness and support to seek help for what I was going through. In particular, this affected my ability to make critical administrative decisions regarding my enrollment. Despite recognizing I was falling behind in classes I did not have the mental clarity to drop classes in a timely manner which ultimately led to failing those classes. In these years I continued to carelessly enroll in classes, even enrolling in additional summer classes to try and make-up for my poor GPA. This led to more academic challenges, even semesters where I completely “shut down” and failed all my classes, which continued to unnecessarily worsen my GPA. Looking back, I realize that had I not carelessly enrolled in courses during semesters when I was mentally unwell—and instead withdrawn or postponed those courses—I would likely be in good academic standing today.
After being required to withdraw from the beginning of the Summer 2023 term, I finally began trying to address the underlying issues that impacted my academic performance. I reached out to mental health professionals through AMHS KFLA and gained greater clarity of the challenges I was facing. In particular, I often turned to excessive internet use and self-isolation as coping mechanisms, which worsened my productivity and disconnected me from my studies. While I made progress in managing these habits, I came to realize the deeper issue holding me back: a reluctance to seek academic support out of pride and shame. I felt embarrassed to admit I was struggling, and avoided engaging with classmates, professors, TAs, and other academic resources even when I knew they could help. I continued to apply advice from my counselors, specifically in relation to seeking support, in the summer 2024 term where I managed to achieve a GPA score of 3.52. I was happy with the progress I made that semester and believe it is a better reflection of my academic ability when I am able to manage internal challenges and seek necessary support.
Although I demonstrated improvement in the summer 2024, the past two semesters have proved to be more difficult than I had anticipated and unfortunately relapsed on habits that made my summer 2024 term successful. I stopped regularly checking in with the mental health supports who not only provided advice for the issues I was dealing with, but would hold me accountable. I continued to engage in bad habits that led to challenges in the past, and despite having a better understanding of these issues from my time in counselling, they were often not portrayed under an academic context. This once again led me to self-isolation, ultimately causing me to fall behind again and below the 1.60 GPA threshold.
Recently, I visited my family physician to discuss my mental health issues and took steps to re-engage with support systems I previously neglected. I am lucky enough to personally know a professor in the Department of Computing and reached out to him to discuss the challenges I’ve faced and to seek advice on how to move forward. This was significant for me as despite him not being an academic advisor, it was the first person at the university I was able to open up to. We discussed strategies to better manage my course load, make use of office hours, and build a consistent study schedule. I am also encouraged from seeing that I was able to pass my less “coding-intensive” computing courses in the past year. I do believe this shows some aptitude to succeed in this discipline and hopefully complete my degree. Moving forward, I am determined to rebuild my academic and personal support systems which I have highlighted in my academic plan.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I remain committed to completing my studies at Queen’s and am hopeful for the opportunity to demonstrate my renewed commitment and capability.
Sincerely,
Muhtasim Hasan