I personally think that your letter is much too long. It’s great that you are taking responsibility for your poor grades, but I suggest you edit it. It’s too focused on your mental health issues, which, IMO, don’t give confidence that you will be able to succeed. I especially don’t see that it is helpful to say you were overwhelmed. All the best stuff, about the steps you have taken, is a bit lost.
I personally think you could be more effective if you shorten this. Maybe shorter, along these lines (this is quite bare bones, but generally…):
Dear Blank,
I fully accept that my academic performance has been subpar and I very much regret it. This is primarily due to a death in my family, which caused bouts of insomnia and an eating disorder. I have attached documents which support this information.
Since (month), I have taken these steps to improve my mental health, including x,y, z…
I will be reducing my courseload and plan to attend office hours, seek tutoring, etc…I now have a support system in place to ensure I will succeed, maybe elaborate more on how you will do that.
I am fully committed to my education at blank U. I am very grateful for the opportunity to explain my poor performance and outline the steps I am taking to succeed here. I hope you will consider my appeal so that I can work toward my goal of earning my degree.
Best of luck to you, I hope your appeal is successful.
Thanks for the suggestions! I unfortunately already sent in my appeal letter and just wanted to see if it seemed like a good letter to send along with my documents. I thought the amount of writing I used to talk about my mental health issues because I spent around 1 paragraph talking about my circumstances. And then I spend the next two paragraphs talking about the steps I’ve taken to improve, and how I will be continuing these steps. I wanted to make sure I gave enough context regarding my circumstances and then spend most of the letter explaining steps I would be taking (this includes steps I’ve already taken). Now I’m worried I spent too much writing explaining my mental health issues but I just tried give enough context/information regarding my situation.
If I were the official reading this letter, I’d sure as heck be pulling for you. That might mean taking additional time off. Or not. I might want to know what your care team felt would give you the greatest odds of success.
You’ve had a tough go of it, and it’s really hard when you’re in the throes of that to work out a plan for turning things around. You’ve done that, so still have work to do, you’ve taken an incredibly big and difficult step. Please recognize that strength in yourself and give yourself grace
Aw thank you so much! It means a lot. I’m genuinely trying really hard her to get this accepted bc these were genuine struggles I was dealing with and I really hope the dean who’s reviewing this can see I’m putting a genuine effort to show new and compelling information while also showing evidence that I’m getting better
At this time, there is not much that you can do to make your appeal effective assuming that by “effective” you mean to result in a reversal of your academic suspension. An effective appeal letter should detail successful treatment. You are just beginning to receive, and to participate in, treatment.
Unfortunately, colleges and universities are very cautious when dealing with mental health issues. Initiating treatment is unlikely to be enough to convince school officers to overlook your current situation. You have shared too much detailed information with your school to expect a quick resolution.
As I wrote above in an earlier post, it would be wise to have the assistance of a qualified attorney when communicating with university officials. There are procedures and legal concerns for all parties that must be handled appropriately when dealing with disciplinary matters–especially those which have a substantial mental health component and medical treatment.