Letter of appeal with change of major! FinAidGrrl, please help!?

Question

FinAidGrrl, I tried emailing you but it said your address isn't verified. Thank you so much for your previous answer! I'd be extremely grateful if you could help me with the last part of my dilemma. I'm currently an English major, due to graduate by Fall '07, but my dream was always to earn a bachelor's in Public Relations. At my school, you have to apply to be accepted for a PR major; the PR program takes at least 2 years to finish. In my letter of appeal, should I say 1) that I'm planning on applying to PR and changing my major or 2) I'm getting my first B.A. in English and that I'm going for PR as a second B.A. or 3) should I only say I'm going for an English B.A. and not mention PR, until I have to appeal when I get accepted into PR? They only allow one change of major per student or if I pursue PR for my second B.A., I have to appeal again. Given my circumstances, would a change of major result in a rejected appeal? Any thoughts on what I should do to get my PR degree?

Answer 1

(I think I fixed the email thing...)

I would go with Option #3. That is, you should probably leave out the information about changing your major. I say this for two reasons...

(1) It's not really the basis for your appeal. Your letter should focus on the Satisfactory Academic Progress issues that led to the cancellation of your Financial Aid. You are best served by discussing (a) the [primarily personal] reasons for your bad grades/dropped classes and (b) how you plan to rectify any errors that you previously made.

While your plans to improve your academic performance are certainly relevant here, your major wasn't really at the crux of your SAP issues. Moreover, your change-of-major isn't even finalized -- and, when it is, it shouldn't have any bearing on your federal financial aid eligibility.

(2) As you suggest, it is possible that your plans to change your major could be viewed negatively by the Appeals Committee. Every school (every individual, in fact), will look at this a bit differently. There are certainly some people who see these changes as a tendency towards "indecision" (particularly since you are already a transfer student). Your school obviously have some qualms about these things, since they have a policy that allows only one change-of-major...

RE: Option #1. I don't see it as lying to omit the information about your desire to get a PR degree. Currently you *are* going for a BA in English... As far as Option #2 -- don't say *that* unless it's true. (Even if it *is* true, I'm not sure they need to know of your plans for a second degree. Your aim should be to demonstrate your commitment to getting *a* degree.)

It's important to plan for the future but, in this case, focus on the task at hand. Resolve your financial aid issues and then make your appeal to change your major.

One more thing occurred to me after I answered your last question: There's always a chance that someone on the Appeals Committee might harbor personal religious/spiritual and/or conservative beliefs that cause them to (covertly or overtly) pass judement on the personal choice that you made. While I sincerely hope that they wouldn't hold your choices against you in deciding on your appeal...well... you might want to give a little thought to the types of people that might be on the Committee (if you go to a Catholic school, for example) and phrase your letter accordingly. I still don't think you should omit this information, but you might decide to downplay it a little.

Best of luck!