Hey guys, i was just wondering what you thought my chances were to be reinstated, my academic advisor did not tell me i should take a year off she told me to just apply right away but ive heard you have a better chance when you take a year off, anyway this is my letter.





Dear Humanities Faculty,

Thomas J. Watson once said “Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure, you are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can, because remember that’s where you will find success.” (Watson, president of International Business Machines 1874 – 1956). Throughout my life I considered failure as the most negative outcome possible, I avoided it and never considered anything positive could come from the experience. This year was far the biggest disappointment in my life, but it taught me more than I ever imagined would be possible.
Although I believe there is no excuse for failure, this year was unfortunately full of a few negative experiences. After working extremely hard in high school to be accepted into the school I knew I wanted to attend since grade 9, I approached first year with enthusiasm and excitement. First semester started off well, I attended class regularly and worked extremely hard with all of my assignments, halfway into the semester there was a death in the family causing many problems within my immediate family. This caused me to become clinically depressed and as much as I knew I wasn’t feeling myself, out of embarrassment I avoided seeking help. I didn’t realize how much this affected my school work until the end of the semester. I went home for holidays, relaxed and forced myself to succeed second semester. I immediately made an appointment with my advisor Jackie Osterman to learn every possible solution I had to fix the mistakes I made in first semester. I worked hard second semester and maintained all my marks to stay above the average I needed. I received high marks on all essays, assignments, and tests, and while doing this I pushed out every issue that occurred in my life trying to avoid conflicts that would upset me and push me away from my goals. Although this plan was successful for the semester as soon as I went home to prepare for exams every conflict I had avoided entered my life at once. This caused me to do horribly in my exams, dropping my marks far below what I needed to accomplish my goal. Since then I have been counselling with my doctor, and am feeling much happier and confident about life.
This experience taught me that there are always going to be issues and conflicts within my life, but pushing them away will not cause them to disappear. I should never be scared to speak to someone or to ask for help, and just because my life stops moving doesn’t mean the rest of the world does as well. I believe I now have the passion, intelligence and ambition to succeed at McMaster University. I can see my goal to become a writer one day more clearly and have even begun to write my first novel. These last two months off of school have been about becoming more emotionally stable, and I plan to spend the rest of my summer interning at the local newspaper as a writer. I am proud of myself for being able to turn a bad experience into an experience that I have learned from. I can promise you that a second chance at McMaster will be all I need to succeed, and I will not disappoint you if you allow me to return in the fall of 2010. Thank you for taking my reinstatement into consideration, and I hope to hear from you.

Seems like a fairly good letter (the presence of quotes is a little weird, but I'm not a Humanities person, so I dunno :p). I think you have a pretty good shot, keeping in mind that the majority of reinstatement letters are something like "I accidentally partied it up this year, what can I say, I'm immature!".

Good luck!

That's a lot to go through, and I'm sorry. But as you've said, you've come a long way and are doing much better, which is excellent.

One key thing you should do whenever addressing a letter to someone (cover letter, is a good example) is to mention the person's name.

By putting the name of the person you are writing to rather than something generic it illustrates your attention to detail as well as your researching skills. If you don't know who you're supposed to address your letter to, ask your counselor.

I think your letter is very well written and will be received well. I like the quote you used.

Grammar mistake in this line: "First semester started off well, I attended class regularly and worked extremely hard with all of my assignments, halfway into the semester there was a death in the family causing many problems within my immediate family."

That line needs a conjunction between assignments and halfway. May I recommend 'however'?

Maybe talk a bit more about what caused your poor grades in first year? Like, a bit of how the death in your family affected you (ex, my little brother died suddenly and I had a really hard time coping, etc), and what you mean by "every conflict I had avoided entered my life at once". What caused the problem is a really important part of the letter, but it seems kind of vague.

Thanks guys! im super nervous :(