The University has made changes to the applicability of the ACORN Absence Declaration Tool. As of the Fall 2023 term, the Absence Declaration Tool will no longer be considered as supporting documentation for petition requests.
If you are struggling in a course, you have the option to drop the course in ACORN before the drop deadline. If you miss that deadline, you can still drop the course by requesting late withdrawal after the drop date (LWD) through your College Registrar's Office. However, if you experience extenuating circumstances beyond your control, it is more appropriate to request withdrawal via a late withdrawal without academic penalty (WDR) petition.
This petition is a request to withdraw from the course after the deadline due to extenuating circumstances which negatively impacted your academic success. If you had withdrawn from the course through a late withdrawal after the drop date, your transcript would show an LWD notation instead of a grade for that course. If your petition for a withdrawal without academic penalty is granted, your transcript will show a WDR notation instead of a grade. Both the LWD and WDR mean that the course does not count towards your GPA or your credits.
Deadline to Submit a Withdrawal Without Academic Penalty Petition
The deadline to submit a petition for a withdrawal without academic penalty is six months after the end of the academic session in which you took the course. For example, if your course ended in December or April, submit this petition before mid-November, and if your course ended in June or August, submit this petition before March of the following year.
Personal Statement & Supporting Documentation for a Withdrawal Without Academic Penalty Petition
In addition to the recommendations listed in Preparing a Petition, you should include a detailed timeline of the events that led you to seek a withdrawal. Demonstrate how and why you were unable to drop the course before the deadline, use the late withdrawal after the drop date option or submit other petitions. Highlight any challenges you faced and the decisions you made to address these challenges.
Special note on completed courses: This petition is normally not granted if a student submitted the final assignment or wrote the final exam, and thus and completed the course. If you choose to finish the course, the Faculty will assume you have decided to accept the outcome despite the problems you experienced. If you wish to submit this petition after finishing a course, you should seek advice from your College Registrar’s Office and ask for their help in planning for all outcomes.
Answer the following questions in your personal statement:
- When did your extenuating circumstances start?
- Did you seek help with these circumstances? If not, why not? If so, what happened?
- When did you stop engaging in the course — for example, going to classes, submitting assignments, writing tests, etc.?
- Did you seek special consideration from your instructor(s) (e.g., make-up tests or extensions) during the course? If not, why not? If so, what happened?
- Did you consider dropping the course (if problems began before the drop date) or requesting a late withdrawal after the drop date from your College Registrar?
- Did you complete the final assignment or write the final exam in the course? If so, why did you make this decision given the circumstances you were facing?
- If documentation is not dated from the time of the circumstances, why?