Is my Financial Aid Appeal letter appropriate?

January 10, 2008
Dear Office of Financial Aid,
My name is and I am writing to appeal my suspension from financial aid. After a successful summer semester I anticipated the fall semester to be even better but things did not go as planned. The fall semester was very overwhelming and stressful because my mother was getting ready to go into surgery and the process before hand dragged on for almost the entire semester until her surgery in December. Due to that situation arising I was forced to take on a second job which required me to travel out of state at least once a month so that I could care for my mother and my daughter. Flying from state to state sometimes caused me to either miss class or submission deadlines with the time difference. As a result of that I considered dropping my History course to focus on the other courses that had better grades, but I decided that passing all my courses would be better than dropping. I then worked on passing this course with out maintaining the same focus on the others. Meanwhile the financial hardships at home were affecting me mentally as much as in my daily routines. My mother and brother were left with out transportation and therefore we were forced to share one automobile as well. Being on this sort of constraint also forced me to take my daughter out of fulltime daycare so that I could save some money, but that also meant less time for me to study. It was a very difficult time for me to focus on my classes when I had to put the needs of my family before my own.
I am very much aware that I should have taken some different directions to maintain my grades above D, but I have compiled a list of things I will do to obtain/maintain higher grades and continue my success in school.
I have recently resigned from one of my jobs in order to focus my attention towards school.
I have already introduced myself to my professors for the Spring 2008 semester to make them aware of my desire to be successful in their course and obtain any information they think will help me do well in their class.
I will continue to work on my time management to balance out my family and study time. I will attend my classes and notify my professors a head of time if I do have to miss a lecture so that I do not fall behind on any of the course content.
I am due to graduate in Fall 2008 and with out the help of financial aid I will not be able to obtain my degree. As I mentioned before I have recently left my job to truly make this dream happen. I need this financial aid now more than ever. This is the most important thing in my life aside from my family so I beg of you another chance. There isn鈥檛 anything else that I want more than to obtain my degree. I am sure that you all know what a huge honor and accomplishment it is to obtain a degree and I would like to prove this to my daughter when she is older. I can not emphasize enough how important this is to me. Please allow me the opportunity to continue receiving financial aid to continue my education and make this dream of obtaining my degree possible.
Thank you for your time and consideration,

I was on a fin aid appeal committee for 3 years. I don't want to come across as too critical, but there are changes to be made. The first thing you need to do in the very beginning of the letter is to take complete responsibility for your grades and absences. You were not forced to do anything, it was a choice. A simple explanation of you chose to be with your mother during her illness is much better than placing the blame elsewhere. Do not go in to detail too much. Simple is the way to go. The next thing is to clearly state your plan of action, without being too wordy. Map out the classes you have left to take, when you are taking them, and when you graduate. Committee members have very little time to read over the letters and a lot will get lost in the words. Make it short, simple and too the point. I don't know if this is relevant to you or not, but you should know that I have never seen a committee grant aid to a student that has been suspended more than once without a successful semester at their own expense. As a committee member, all I wanted to see is the student take responsibility for their actions. Too many place the blame on others or other situations. Don't forget to dress professional and show up extra early, let them know that you mean business. I hope that this has helped, and good luck with your appeal hearing.


Please feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions.

I like it a lot I had to write one of these and yours is much better, I wouldn't use the word forced so often in the beginning. The whole thing sounds outstanding and I think they will see your side of things clearly. Well written and good luck.

It sounds great to me!! If you don't mind me adding I would def. state in the letter if they give you another chance that no matter what you will do good a finish school and not tlet anything get in the way of that!

I wish you the best. Iknow school is hard and IMPOSSIBLE without finacial aid!

That sounds great. Some schools also require some kind of documentation about the events that occured that kept you distracted from keeping up your grades. Just something to think about.