Hello,
I was recently notified by my school that I would not receive financial aid anymore because I currently do not meet the Pace Standards. As part of the appeal process, I have to write a personal statement. I just wanted to get the opinions of others in regards to if my personal statement is strong enough to be accepted. This is a rough draft and any suggestions/criticisms are welcome.
"The extenuating circumstance that has prevented me from meeting the Pace Standard has been because of financial problems. During my first two academic years at San Francisco State University, I was receiving financial help from my relatives, which meant that I did not have to worry about finances. However, because of unexpected financial troubles, my relatives were not able to help me financially. Because of this, I was forced to work a part time job in order to pay for my expenses such as monthly housing rent, utilities, and insurance. Because of the increasing rent in the San Francisco bay area coupled with my relatively wage rate, I was forced to balance my rigorous course load with more hours working than I was comfortable with. Unfortunately, I was not able to successfully balance work and my studies which has led to my subpar performance in my classes. On top of this, I was in a major that I realized that I did not want to continue pursuing, but failed to switch out of it sooner.
What has changed in my life that will help me in meeting the Pace Standard in the future is that my parents will now support me financially, so that I may now focus on just my studies. I will no longer have to work to support myself, which in turn, allows me to spend all of my time in passing my courses. Also, I have decided to switch out of my current major, mechanical engineering, to go into the major that truly want to pursue, computer science. This means that I will be more dedicated than ever in completing my studies. I will make this official switch in August when it is first available for me. In the mean time, I am currently taking lower division computer science courses this summer at the local community college so that I may be able to complete my degree in a more timely manner even after this switch of major. I have also learned from mistakes in the past and have dedicated more time to my studies outside of class, as well as reaching out to tutors to help me in the future."