I need to know if my financial aid appeal letter is appropriate please let me know!?

My name is _____. I am writing in regards of my reasons for dropping my classes back in spring of 2002. At the time I was helping my family out at a family business, working at a 24-hour restaurant to earn money for school, and trying to maintain a long distance relationship. As a teen and a young adult I had no clue of what I had ahead of me. I had the most 3 to 4 hours of sleep at the time, and could not learn to balance two jobs, school, and a relationship. I learned later that I had to withdrawal from my schooling and quit my waiting job to keep my sanity. I figured that I could jump back into school once I was mentally, physically, and financially ready. Much time has passed and a lot of mistakes have been made. I don鈥檛 consider them much of mistakes, for me it was a great learning experience. Even though 7 years have passed, I am now ready to go back to school. I am still young enough to get where I want to go in life and old enough to understand what I need to do.

I am currently enrolled at Community College. I am taking History and Government. Since it has been 7 years since my attendance in school, I figured that these two classes would help ease me back into school in a responsible and sensible way. My goal is to achieve a GPA of 3.5 or higher. I know I can achieve that goal. As a high school student I took pre Honors and Honors classes and was going to graduate a year early. I got caught up in helping my family out with the family business and was forced to quit school. I later got my GED. I joined college later on thinking that could help redeem myself, but only scarred me even worse that I had to drop. Now that I am a mom to a 4 year old, and have had multiple career opportunities, I learned a lot about what I like and what I want. I am going to finish my 2 years of core classes at ___. I will then transfer to ____ to complete my Bachelors in Science. As I complete my BS, I will apply for ___ College of Dentistry. I know that the competition is fierce so I cannot make any mistakes. With my record, I have a great challenge ahead of me and I am now ready to take it. My current classes are from 7am-9am, which allows me to be on time at work. I am currently saving money for more classes for the rest of the year. Even though I am on a very tight budget I realize now that nothing is more important than your education. Regardless if I want to buy something for myself, I鈥檇 rather spend it on classes and things I need to continue my education. Being a mother and wife will not affect my schooling. It actually encourages me more knowing that I have learned to multi-task so well. I am fortunate that I have both my parents to help me with childcare and my daughter鈥檚 father鈥檚 parents.

My husband currently attends ___ College also. I have made a plan how to spread my class hours in a four-year span and graduate on time. I鈥檓 starting out slow to help my transition back into college. Starting with 2 SP classes, 1 fast-track for summer, 3 FA, 1 fast-track for the end of FA, and so on, I will slowly add more classes until I am complete for my BS. In a 2-week span I have visited advisors 3 times and constantly on the move. I want to be certain that I am taking the right classes and doing the right things. I will continue to meet with advisors to update and assure myself. I have multiple back up plans just in case of emergencies or anything that might try to interfere with my classes. I am confident I can finish college this time around. I have my own laptop and have access for help with my studies. I have my own transportation and have no excuses to fail classes. While attending, I am also taking extra steps on the side to teach myself subjects I will take later on to prepare myself. I will have to retake the math portion of the TSI exam so that I can be exempt. I鈥檓 currently studying and will take the test in a few weeks. The reason I failed it 7 years ago was because I didn鈥檛 have the will power that I have today. Thank you for taking the time to review my letter. I know there is no excuse for dropping my classes, but I hope this will help you to understand who I was and the person I am today. Financial Aid will help tremendously, ensuring my education.




Thank you again,

I'm not sure "withdrawal" is a word. Best just use withdraw.

Get rid of the beginning part of the third paragraph. They don't want to hear about hubby. THe end part is great.. starting at "I will meet with advisors to update and "

You need to clearly restate WHY you are not getting fin aid now in a simple sentance and you are not doing that now. For example: I am not eligilbe to recieve fin aid because ..... all my XX classes while recieving fin aid for the XX semester of XXX.

I'm still not clear by your letter if you are being denied aid because you withdrew from all your classes or because you didn't and failed. This may make a difference in what you say in your letter. And you seem to elude to both? A CLEAR understanding of WHAT you did wrong is imperative, if you are not sure call and ask. Also ask what your cumulative GPA is and if that is also blocking you from getting aid (because this can in addition to both of the other things mentioned).

As is a clear understanding of what you need to do to keep this from happening again. You could find yourself getting your appeal granted, only to have it revoked again for not having a high enough GPA. Some folks go in with so bad a GPA they NEVER would be able to raise it about the 2.0 mark in one semester, but no one ever tells them that.

My advise it to make your letter shorter, tighter, and avoid any acronyms or abbreviations.