Would you approve my SAP Appeal request?

Paying for College
1

To Whom It May Concern:

I am respectfully writing to request a SAP Appeal on my 2014 Fall Semester at Valencia College due to extreme personal family problems. I’m going to give you a summary of my situation, why it hindered my performance, why I am confident that I am able to continue on with pursuing my education, and how I plan to do so.

I am a single mom to my 12 year old daughter. My ex-husband Shaun remarried in 2011 and the moment they married, his wife made my life terrible. In 2014 my daughter was 8 years old. During the fall semester I was a full-time student taking 4 classes and going through one of the most terrible times of my life. Here is an example of one incident during that semester: December 2014 during finals week I text my daughters’ father to let him know I was on my way to pick up my daughter (it was my scheduled time). He told me he was not going to give her to me because he wanted to take her to a movie. However, I had already made plans for her. I told him that we had plans and I was coming to get her. I went to pick her up and they were not there. I called and text and he would not answer or reply. I left it alone and went home. The next day I text him to let him know that I was coming to pick her up after work. He didn’t reply. I called and text, still no reply. I began to get worried because his wife is unstable, and I believe she was capable of anything, I just couldn’t prove it. I called the police department for advice and told them how hostile him and his wife typically were towards me. They suggested that I have an officer meet with me so that I didn’t walk into a dangerous situation. I had my mother come with me and the police met with us before we went. His wife took off with my daughter when she knew I was coming so that I could not get my daughter back. The police called her and demanded that she return my daughter to me. Hours passed and still my daughter was not returned. The police called again and told her to bring her right away. Finally, after 3-4 hours of waiting, she was returned to me. When I saw her, tons of her hair were chopped off (for the 2nd time without my knowledge nor my permission) and her hair was at her ears. His wife did this intentionally to upset me which was the reason that they took her from the house before I could pick her up. I share this story to give you an idea of the type of things that were constantly occurring during this time. I’ve included a letter from my daughters’ father, admitting to causing me extreme problems over the course of time.

I tried my best to be in school and to focus on my education but there were many times where my daughter would call me crying asking me to pick her up while I was at school. I spoke to my professors and let them know what I was dealing with, but I didn’t want to withdraw. I was doing my best to not give up. There were even times that his wife had been physical with me and pushed me in front of my daughter at her day care and at church when she popped up just to bother me. They called the cops when my sister was babysitting for me and they tried to take her from my sister because they were angry that I called the cops when they refused to give her back to me. I had to rush there so that the officer would not hand my daughter over to them. Another time Chantal tried to run off with my daughter as I approached to pick her up. She told my daughter I was trying to poison her. She told my daughter that I didn’t love her and that I wasn’t her mom. She told my daughter that I was a stripper (which I was not). She told my daughter I was doing “nasty things” with men for money. She even physically attacked my daughter (after the 2014 fall semester). I just want you to understand the type of person that I was dealing with and the stress that I was under while trying to work full time, focus on 4 classes, and deal with this type of drama and be there for my daughter that was being taken on a mental and emotional rollercoaster. It was at an all-time high while I was trying to make it through my fall semester, even coming after my mother too with phone calls and messages. You can call the references below (his family) and they will confirm that his wife was obsessed with me.

Although being a single mom has been difficult, considering what my ex and his wife put me through, I am now confident that I will successfully be able to continue on with my education. Several things have changed in both my life and the life of my daughters’ father. He is currently no longer with his wife. They have not been together most of 2018 - a separation that occurred because his wife attacked him, lied, had him arrested and filed a restraining order on him. They are now finalizing their divorce. It had gotten so bad that my daughter did not want to see or speak to her father for an entire year because of what his wife was putting us through. Things have changed, and I have helped him build a new relationship with our daughter. He is now back in our daughter’s life and he is finally helping me financially and taking responsibility for the problems that he has caused me and the things he allowed to happen for several years. Now that his circumstances have changed my stress level has lowered dramatically and I know that I can finally focus on school and be successful. If you look back at my grades for classes that I have completed I have mostly A’s and B’s and 2 C’s. I know I am capable, and I know I am ready.

Since the 2014 Fall Semester I have tried my best to stay in school in some way and tried to work on a class here and there while paying out of pocket. In hindsight, I know that was not a good idea because I was still dealing with constant problems and harassment from him and his wife. I mentally and emotionally was not prepared to be in school, but I was hungry for school and I didn’t want to feel like I couldn’t do it. I need to get my degree. Being a single mom is difficult, but she is my greatest pride - finishing school and showing her that I was able to do it despite everything that we had been through, that would be the ultimate accomplishment! I am literally begging you, please approve this SAP Appeal and I will prove to everyone including you and my daughter, that I can and will reach my goals. I know that things aren’t always easy but what I was going through for so long was too much to bare and constant. I’m just glad that his wife can no longer attack my daughter and I and I’m grateful that he is back in our daughter’s life and has been working on himself and supporting my efforts to co-parent and to finish school. My daughter went through over a year of counseling and is doing much better now. Reference her counselors phone number below for any questions.

2

There wasn’t enough room for everything, here is the end of the letter…

What steps am I taking to prevent future unsatisfactory academic progress?

I am being honest with myself. I know that I have goals but in hindsight, I understand that we all have limits and I need to be aware of mine. Even though I was going through terrible times for a long time, I should not have been enrolled in school. I was not mentally or emotionally equipped for it and sometimes we have to be honest with ourselves and realize that we need to wait for the right time. For me, the right time is NOW. In the future I will be honest with myself about that to ensure that I’m making good decisions that will benefit my successful completion of all classes that I enroll in.

What will I need to accomplish to meet the standards of Satisfactory Academic Progress by the end of the next term?

I looked into this and if I’m understanding it correctly, I will need to retake 3 courses that I failed in order to reach a completion rate of 68%, putting me over the 67% required completion rate. From there I need to maintain my grades to successfully reach my education goals.

I realized that I cannot continue in school the way that I am. I need help. With all due respect, I need my financial aid back. Again, I’m a single mom and it’s hard financially. I need this appeal to help me continue on without paying out of pocket and I promise you I will be another success story for Valencia that despite all odds, if you fight for yourself and your goals, and you never give up, you can do it. I won’t give up. Please grant me this appeal.

3

I understand that you must be able to prove why you need the appeal. For example, medical records. However, my situation is a bit different than that. My failed semester was due to extreme stress in my personal life in relation to my daughter and the way we were treated by her father and his wife that made it very difficult to successfully complete that semester. I am worried that my appeal will not be approved since I do not have solid proof of that, I did reach out to friends and family and my past employer requesting that they write letters on my behalf supporting my claims. Please let me know what you think. I plan to attach other information with my appeal, a DCF report for a situation that occurred a year later and other events that happened that are not directly linked to that semester BUT they do weigh heavily on her character and the type of person I was dealing with. The only documentation I was able to obtain was other events where the police became involved at other times outside of that semester.

4

Your letter is WAYYYYYYY too long and is full of excuses that really aren’t about you.

The school wants to hear these things…and summarize…get to the point…be succinct.

  1. What problems are you addressing?
  2. What have you already DONE to address these issues?
  3. What will you continue to do if you are re-admitted.

Frankly, information from Years ago is not relevant.

The school KNOWS the SAP requirements. You don’t have to put those in your letter.

I don’t see one single thing you are DOING that will make this committee look at your appeal. All you mention is how you are thinking differently. So…are you getting tutoring? Do you have a plan you have formulated for success with an academic advisor?

What are YOU doing?

Asking for money to return is not enough.

That is more important than what happened in the past… because without a plan and some action already done…your chances of success are not high.

5

I’m sorry that you had such an issue and struggle with the custody and safety of your daughter. That said, I agree with the above poster that this is not the right approach to take with your college. I would be very succinct in the problem, like a sentence or two, and then focus the rest of the letter on what supports you have in place and your plan to successfully complete your courses.

6

I completely agree with the previous two posters. I couldn’t even finish your letter - too long, too many details, too much victim. While I am very sorry you went through what you did, I don’t think an appeals committee wants to hear nearly as much detail as you put into that. It is enough to say you went through a bitter and trying divorce that frequently involved the police. It was emotionally damaging to your daughter, and in an attempt to protect and be a good parent to her, you were not able to manage your studies in the way you expected, hoped, or planned. Details available upon request (and supply the police reports only if they ask).

I really do hope you get to go back!

7

You start out pretty well with this paragraph: “I am respectfully writing to request a SAP Appeal on my 2014 Fall Semester at Valencia College due to extreme personal family problems. I’m going to give you a summary of my situation, why it hindered my performance, why I am confident that I am able to continue on with pursuing my education, and how I plan to do so.” But I would omit this part: I’m going to give you a summary of my situation, why it hindered my performance."

So maybe something like: “I am respectfully writing to request a SAP Appeal on my 2014 Fall Semester at Valencia College due to personal family problems. The problems I had as a single parent hindered my academic performance. But I am confident that I will be successful with pursuing my education.”

Then omit everything having to do with your ex’s new wife, which is pretty much the majority of the document. Follow the advice above about what you plan to do if your appeal is approved, and why you will be successful this time.

You are a pretty good writer but this type of committee doesn’t want to know all the details of your personal life.

Good luck!!

8

Thank you for that. I am so long winded sometimes and because I don’t have police reports I feel like I have to over-explain myself. I will definitely use your summary. That is helpful and I will use the guidance from the other posts to focus on what my plan is and what I have already done to ensure my success.