Originally Posted by lifesciman1

Btw, do they ever let you bypass the 1 year off requirement? I understand that it can help me recover, but I have been recovering mentally since the end of school. I signed up for a cancer counselling program at Sunny Brooke. I will be attending meetings and 1 on 1s the entire summer. Now that I think about it I should have mentioned that in my letter :/ ( I could most likely provide proof of registration for this too).

You definitely should mention that, and give them any/all documentation you can think of.
Taking 1 year off isn't a requirement that needs to be bypassed. It's just that typically people's problems aren't resolved within a couple of months of the year ending, and taking a year to do something productive can help your reinstatement application.

Originally Posted by nerual

You definitely should mention that, and give them any/all documentation you can think of.
Taking 1 year off isn't a requirement that needs to be bypassed. It's just that typically people's problems aren't resolved within a couple of months of the year ending, and taking a year to do something productive can help your reinstatement application.

I have documentation for the illness of course. I know what you mean but if I skip a year it would be doing first year in 3rd in a way and that is a scary thought.

During one of the first year orientations that took place during the summer before I started my first year at Mac, there was a professor that spoke about the great volume of reinstatement requests that he receives from students. He talked about this a lot (mostly, in my opinion, to scare us into wanting to do well so we don't have to go through the reinstatement process) and he mentioned that people often have reasons that they believe validate their academic performance. However, he was quick to point out that when he reads a reinstatement request, he does not necessarily look for a reason that someone did poorly because (according to him) that 'cause' may once again arise after reinstatement. Instead, he emphasized that he looks for one thing when reading a reinstatement request: seeking early help. He pointed out that he was more likely to give a student a second chance if he had reason to believe that they understood the problem at an early stage and did something about it.

I should also point out that he was probably saying this in order to convey the message to an incoming group of students that if they were encountering problems, they should seek help early in order to maximize their chances of success.

I've read your initial post, and what I did see is that you mentioned that you did work quite hard in the end in an effort to improve your marks. When editing the letter, I would try to incorporate (along with the other points that were mentioned earlier) things that you did at an early stage (even if they were small things, like talking to someone from the Student Success Center) in order to show that you understood the situation and attempted to improve it from the beginning or soon after understanding it.

Good luck!

I would also ask Chad to delete this thread before you submit this. Ya never know.

Originally Posted by vinny06

During one of the first year orientations that took place during the summer before I started my first year at Mac, there was a professor that spoke about the great volume of reinstatement requests that he receives from students. He talked about this a lot (mostly, in my opinion, to scare us into wanting to do well so we don't have to go through the reinstatement process) and he mentioned that people often have reasons that they believe validate their academic performance. However, he was quick to point out that when he reads a reinstatement request, he does not necessarily look for a reason that someone did poorly because (according to him) that 'cause' may once again arise after reinstatement. Instead, he emphasized that he looks for one thing when reading a reinstatement request: seeking early help. He pointed out that he was more likely to give a student a second chance if he had reason to believe that they understood the problem at an early stage and did something about it.

I should also point out that he was probably saying this in order to convey the message to an incoming group of students that if they were encountering problems, they should seek help early in order to maximize their chances of success.

I've read your initial post, and what I did see is that you mentioned that you did work quite hard in the end in an effort to improve your marks. When editing the letter, I would try to incorporate (along with the other points that were mentioned earlier) things that you did at an early stage (even if they were small things, like talking to someone from the Student Success Center) in order to show that you understood the situation and attempted to improve it from the beginning or soon after understanding it.

Good luck!

Golden. Thank you so much for the feedback! Do you think I stand a better chance because it was a medical issue? I mean I think everyone here would agree that getting diagnosed with cancer will affect your mental health. The issue with me what that I wasn't aware of the minimum of 3 CA requirement. I was hanging in there slowly and was going to fix my grades over the summer and try to improve mentally and relax.. When I found out about the 3 CA I was really put in a very tight spot from all directions and just went on auto-pilot and gave it all I had. Unfortunately it wasn't enough :(

I never knew Macinsiders was such a good support and help system. One more reason McMaster is awesome

Originally Posted by lifesciman1

Golden. Thank you so much for the feedback! Do you think I stand a better chance because it was a medical issue? I mean I think everyone here would agree that getting diagnosed with cancer will affect your mental health. The issue with me what that I wasn't aware of the minimum of 3 CA requirement. I was hanging in there slowly and was going to fix my grades over the summer and try to improve mentally and relax.. When I found out about the 3 CA I was really put in a very tight spot from all directions and just went on auto-pilot and gave it all I had. Unfortunately it wasn't enough :(

I never knew Macinsiders was such a good support and help system. One more reason McMaster is awesome

Don't say you didn't know you'd get kicked out with a CA of less than three

Originally Posted by nerual

Don't say you didn't know you'd get kicked out with a CA of less than three

I know it may sound like Im a total retard, but in all honesty I didn't know. BUT that doesn't change anything, I don't think its an excuse for me to screw up. It was still all my fault. :/

EDIT: do you mean in the letter lol? haha no way!

Originally Posted by lifesciman1

I know it may sound like Im a total retard, but in all honesty I didn't know. BUT that doesn't change anything, I don't think its an excuse for me to screw up. It was still all my fault. :/

EDIT: do you mean in the letter lol? haha no way!

Lol yeah I meant the letter...because then they'll be like "oh, he thought he didn't have to try so he didn't, and he wasn't informed enough to know the basic requirements to stay in". I didn't know at the beginning of first year either...because nobody really goes into university thinking they're gonna have to work really hard to get above a 3, so no one pays attention to it. The people reading your letter won't see it that way, though

Originally Posted by lifesciman1

Golden. Thank you so much for the feedback! Do you think I stand a better chance because it was a medical issue? I mean I think everyone here would agree that getting diagnosed with cancer will affect your mental health. The issue with me what that I wasn't aware of the minimum of 3 CA requirement. I was hanging in there slowly and was going to fix my grades over the summer and try to improve mentally and relax.. When I found out about the 3 CA I was really put in a very tight spot from all directions and just went on auto-pilot and gave it all I had. Unfortunately it wasn't enough :(

I never knew Macinsiders was such a good support and help system. One more reason McMaster is awesome

In all honesty, it would be wrong for me to tell you if you have (or don't have) a "better chance" because you had a medical issue that impacted your academic performance. I wouldn't want to say 'yes' and give you false hope, but I also can't say 'no' because I've never gone through a similar process nor have I talked to anyone who has or anyone who is involved (from the University's side) with the reinstatement process about such a situation.

Also, as far as not being aware of minimum requirements goes, I don't think anyone from the University would accept an "I didn't know" as a valid reason. I understand that you did not know and that once you found out you put forth a great effort, but I can imagine the University simply telling you that you had the means to find out about minimum requirements all along, and "not knowing" is something that falls on your shoulders.

ninja'd.

Lol, yea I thought you were going to put that in your letter. DO NOT.