SAP appeal letter. would you approve? what do i need to fix?

Paying for College
1

it’s set up in rough draft form but what should i change?

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to you today to request my academic suspension be repealed.

What happened:
I attended [college] from August 2012- December 2013. When I started in August of 2012, I had found out I was pregnant over the summer. Throughout the pregnancy, I had a lot of morning sickness lasted throughout the day. I was also working a full time job during this time; In September, I had to quit my job because of this. I still tried to do classes online and attend class. It became very difficult as the morning sickness continued. As my pregnancy progressed, my blood pressure also started going up, this eventually resulted in strict bedrest. Due to this my studies faltered and I eventually quit going to class because I was so far behind from being sick and the stress of being sick. I took the spring semester off due to having my daughter and having been on bedrest due to blood pressure issues while pregnant, I wanted to be feeling 100% when I went back to class.
I came back to [college] for the fall 2013 semester. I decided to do all online classes since my husband at the time took a job in eastern state and we had one car. I attempted the classes and did my online studies. I was very determined and wanted to try my best. While we were in eastern state, we encountered financial difficulties, I had to work and take care of my daughter. The financial stress as well as being away from my entire support system took a toll on my mental health and my classes took a back burner to the daily stresses. The financial burden eventually resulted in us moving back to [original city] and in with my parents while I got back on my feet.

What has changed.
In the time I have been out of school, I have learned to sort my priorities and achieving goals even when it isn’t the “easy” thing to do. I have learned better time management skills. I have matured a lot over the last five years and I am ready to conquer this goal of mine. Without financial aid, it would be nearly impossible for me to get this degree. This opportunity would allow me to achieve my dream of becoming an oncology nurse.
Thank you for your consideration of this appeal.

Attached you will find the following documents
• a letter from my nurse midwife who was over my care during my pregnancy.

2

I think you have a good start - I would suggest look online for examples of good and bad letters to appeal an academic suspension. I suspect there is a little too much detail in your “what happened” section. You should also re-read what you have written - some of the sentence structure and grammar needs proofreading/refinement. Good luck!

3

If I am reading this correctly you had TWO bad semesters? The first one is easy enough for a FA office to approve with supporting documentation that you had an irregular pregnancy (high blood pressure).

The second situation/semester is much harder. The Dept of Ed won’t let schools approve appeals for things like failing to adjust to college, not being mature, etc. You have to prove it was a situation beyond your control. Was there a job loss by your husband or a foreclosure or something like that? Then if so, if you explain WHAT the financial issue was and provide supporting documents you have a chance.

The “what has changed” is required by federal law. Honestly yours is pretty weak and very common of what students put. Everyone thinks they have fixed their issues and do better and statistics show us they don’t. So I would be more specific. I am no longer pregnant so that issue no longer exists. We have xxxx the financial situation and I have done xxxx (e.g. child in school now) to ensure I can apply myself and be fully invested in college.

If this is approved you MUST succeed. Second appeals are really hard to get approved because it is no longer an extenuating circumstance, but just life.

Good luck!