My college asks for a personal statement instead of a letter as a dismissal appeal?

College Essays
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<p>My college asks for a personal statement instead of a letter as an appeal to dismissal?
I’m a freshmen and got really bad grades for the last two quarters. Now my academic standing is “subject to dismissal”. My deans gives everyone in this academic standing to appeal to dismissal, which requires a personal statement explaining the reasons why I got the grades i did and the ways I plan to fix it, an interview, and a list of future courses created with and approved by an adviser of my intended major.</p>

<p>I’ve been search online for help (not to plagiarize, but to get some idea of formatting and what makes a convincing paper on such a topic), and they are all in formats of letters. Is my college likely to be asking for a letter, but called it a “personal statement”? if not, how do the two terms, in my circumstances, differ? Do i write a “To whom this may concern” in a personal statement?</p>

<p>I am currently a student of UC Davis, and in the college of Engineering. I plan to switch my major to Biochemistry. I’ve read on an official document on the internet that leniency has been shown to students who switch majors, is this true? </p>

<p>Any other advice on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.</p>

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<p>I’ve also failed to make minimum progress. I plan to take summer classes to make it up. </p>

<p>I am currently taking 19 units so I can qualify for financial aid. (I’ve failed 4 classes, so I need to pass 19 units this quarter so that I have passed 67 percent of my attempted units, which is the requirement for financial aid.)</p>

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<p>However, 2 of the failed classes were N/NP classes, so they didn’t affect my GPA. I got 2 F’s in my calculus and microecon classes, though :frowning: </p>

<p>I am currently retaking calculus.</p>