Petition Letter
Dear Associate Dean,
I¿¿m appealing to receive a credit standing for PSYC 202 and/or PSYC 205. I had a really difficult time during the fall semester of 2014 that caused me to perform very poorly in these two courses, which I believe is not a reflection of my work ethic or my understanding of the course content in usual circumstances.
In October 2014, I began to experience many depressive symptoms. My living situation in Kingston caused severe stress for me, which I believe might have been a trigger for my depression. I began to feel intensely home sick and socially isolated. Because of this, I made frequent and unexpected trips home during weekends, with the commute taking up a lot of time when I should have been doing schoolwork. I was unable to sleep at night, often unwillingly pulling all-nighters. This caused me to sleep excessively during the day and eventually, it became difficult to leave my bed. This was the most intense in November. As a result, I missed many lectures and labs that were pivotal for me to attend in order to succeed in PSYC 202 and PSYC 205. Both courses included labs where attendance was necessary in order to complete assignments based on the content learned in the labs. When I needed to be awake for midterms and exams, I wrote the majority of them while very sleep-deprived and unable to focus. I never lost my desire to succeed academically but much of the time, I couldn¿¿t find the energy or motivation within myself to get work done. Even when I did manage to attend my classes or make time to study, it was nearly impossible to be completely attentive. I developed a great deal of anxiety surrounding the fact that I was falling so behind in these two courses, leading me to put a lot of pressure on myself to pull it together, resulting in overwhelming disappointment every time I received a poor mark back.
I believe I¿¿m the kind of student who knows her strengths and weaknesses. Reflecting on my past experience, it¿¿s become clear to me that areas involving mathematics take me longer to comprehend than qualitative courses. In addition, I¿¿ve never had experience writing research labs similar to the ones that were assigned in PSYC 205. Due to the nature of this course, more than half of the final grade was based on these labs. These two courses are definitely the ones I found the most challenging, as they both involved aspects that required extra time and effort from me; something I was unable provide in the state I was in from October to December, but know I could have worked hard to succeed in if under other circumstances. Although I believe my symptoms definitely did have an effect on my other three courses, the courses were structured in a way that produced far less stress for me. This included memorizing qualitative material, open-book exams, and essay writing, all of which I¿¿ve always been very comfortable with. In addition, these courses involved a lot of content that I was already fairly familiar with and did not have lab components. These courses were manageable without attending classes, as long as I could access the lecture notes on Moodle and get a classmate to send me her notes from class. This was unlike PSYC 202 and PSYC 205 where I would have needed extra assistance and verbal explanations and demonstrations.
Over the course of the winter break, my performance in these two courses and poor functioning acted as a huge wake up call for me to change my circumstances. Being home for a longer period of time encouraged me to become more vocal about my problems and reflect on the reasons I¿¿m in school and how much I usually enjoy my academics. Since then, I¿¿ve been able to recognize the strong support system I have in my life and my gratitude for all the opportunities I¿¿ve been provided with. I know that my strong passion for psychology and philosophy will act as huge motivators for me to work hard, while still making sure to put my health first. I¿¿ve made new living arrangements, which has made an immense difference for me so far. My academic plan is to really utilize all the resources around me and take full advantage of office hours held by my professors and teaching assistants. I¿¿ve developed much more effective time management strategies and have been asking for help as early as possible to prevent falling behind. I will most likely take a course over the summer to lighten my workload for next year. Most importantly, I believe my openness for more social support and talking about my problems has been making the most significant difference in my semester so far.
Sincerely,
Anna Feng
I¿¿m appealing to receive a credit standing for PSYC 202 and/or PSYC 205. I had a really difficult time during the fall semester of 2014 that caused me to perform very poorly in these two courses, which I believe is not a reflection of my work ethic or my understanding of the course content in usual circumstances.
In October 2014, I began to experience many depressive symptoms. My living situation in Kingston caused severe stress for me, which I believe might have been a trigger for my depression. I began to feel intensely home sick and socially isolated. Because of this, I made frequent and unexpected trips home during weekends, with the commute taking up a lot of time when I should have been doing schoolwork. I was unable to sleep at night, often unwillingly pulling all-nighters. This caused me to sleep excessively during the day and eventually, it became difficult to leave my bed. This was the most intense in November. As a result, I missed many lectures and labs that were pivotal for me to attend in order to succeed in PSYC 202 and PSYC 205. Both courses included labs where attendance was necessary in order to complete assignments based on the content learned in the labs. When I needed to be awake for midterms and exams, I wrote the majority of them while very sleep-deprived and unable to focus. I never lost my desire to succeed academically but much of the time, I couldn¿¿t find the energy or motivation within myself to get work done. Even when I did manage to attend my classes or make time to study, it was nearly impossible to be completely attentive. I developed a great deal of anxiety surrounding the fact that I was falling so behind in these two courses, leading me to put a lot of pressure on myself to pull it together, resulting in overwhelming disappointment every time I received a poor mark back.
I believe I¿¿m the kind of student who knows her strengths and weaknesses. Reflecting on my past experience, it¿¿s become clear to me that areas involving mathematics take me longer to comprehend than qualitative courses. In addition, I¿¿ve never had experience writing research labs similar to the ones that were assigned in PSYC 205. Due to the nature of this course, more than half of the final grade was based on these labs. These two courses are definitely the ones I found the most challenging, as they both involved aspects that required extra time and effort from me; something I was unable provide in the state I was in from October to December, but know I could have worked hard to succeed in if under other circumstances. Although I believe my symptoms definitely did have an effect on my other three courses, the courses were structured in a way that produced far less stress for me. This included memorizing qualitative material, open-book exams, and essay writing, all of which I¿¿ve always been very comfortable with. In addition, these courses involved a lot of content that I was already fairly familiar with and did not have lab components. These courses were manageable without attending classes, as long as I could access the lecture notes on Moodle and get a classmate to send me her notes from class. This was unlike PSYC 202 and PSYC 205 where I would have needed extra assistance and verbal explanations and demonstrations.
Over the course of the winter break, my performance in these two courses and poor functioning acted as a huge wake up call for me to change my circumstances. Being home for a longer period of time encouraged me to become more vocal about my problems and reflect on the reasons I¿¿m in school and how much I usually enjoy my academics. Since then, I¿¿ve been able to recognize the strong support system I have in my life and my gratitude for all the opportunities I¿¿ve been provided with. I know that my strong passion for psychology and philosophy will act as huge motivators for me to work hard, while still making sure to put my health first. I¿¿ve made new living arrangements, which has made an immense difference for me so far. My academic plan is to really utilize all the resources around me and take full advantage of office hours held by my professors and teaching assistants. I¿¿ve developed much more effective time management strategies and have been asking for help as early as possible to prevent falling behind. I will most likely take a course over the summer to lighten my workload for next year. Most importantly, I believe my openness for more social support and talking about my problems has been making the most significant difference in my semester so far.
Sincerely,
Anna Feng