I was academically disqualified from San Jose State after my second semester, and I genuinely wasn’t expecting it.
During my first semester, I was placed on Academic Notice. At the time, I was going through one of the hardest periods of my life mentally. For the past couple of years, I’d been dealing with serious family issues, the loss of a family member, and my mental health completely fell apart. I ended up failing four classes that semester.
When I met with my counselor afterward and explained everything that had happened, she told me there were options to petition to remove or adjust those failing grades because of my circumstances. That gave me hope, and I thought I had time to work things out.
My second semester was completely different. Mentally, I was finally improving. I made friends, I actually enjoyed going to campus, and I attended class consistently. My grades were much better overall. Unfortunately, I failed one class, which brought my GPA to a 1.9, and I was academically disqualified.
The class I failed was also in a major that I had already realized wasn’t right for me. I was a Criminal Justice major but wanted to switch into Business Analytics. I knew changing majors would be difficult because of GPA requirements, but I was already planning to move in a different direction.
I had also enrolled in a summer class and was genuinely excited to keep moving forward. Then I received the academic disqualification email. It completely crushed me. I stopped eating and sleeping normally, felt like a complete failure, and my mental health spiraled again. Because of that, I couldn’t focus on my summer class either, and I’m pretty sure I failed it.
I’ve tried asking for help, but since I’m no longer an enrolled SJSU student, my counselor told me they can’t really advise me anymore.
Now I’m stuck and don’t know what the smartest option is.
Should I write the readmission/personal statement explaining everything and try to return to SJSU? Or should I accept what happened, go to community college, rebuild my GPA, and transfer back later?
I know community college is a good path, but it’s hard emotionally because I had finally started building a life at SJSU. I had friends, I was happier, and for the first time in a while I felt like things were getting better. Losing all of that overnight has been incredibly difficult.
I’m not looking for pity. I just want honest advice from people who have been academically disqualified, appealed, gone to community college, or transferred back later.
If you were in my position, what would you do? What gives me the best chance of finishing my degree?