Preparing for Your Appeal
Preparations by Appeal Type
Before submitting your CAP Appeal, the appeal types below require all preceding steps to be completed for full consideration.
The Committee on Academic Petitions (CAP) is a committee whose members are appointed by the Provost.
CAP is charged with considering and deciding student academic petitions, as set out in the SMU Statement of Process for Undergraduate Student Academic Petitions. Only requests outlined in this process may be considered by this committee.
Academic Petitions are requests by a student for an exception to an academic policy. Academic policy includes any policy, rule, or regulation that applies to academic matters at SMU.
Are you looking for:
If your appeal is regarding a grade change in one or more courses that does not involve a late withdrawal or is an extension of SMU's incomplete grading policy, please review the SMU policy for grade appeals under Enrollment and Academic Records in your catalog.
Please consult your catalog for specific details, but generally, grade appeals follow this process:
Any student who wants to request a medical withdrawal should first complete and submit a Caring Community Connections (CCC) submission form and select the “medical withdrawal request” checkbox.
This will initiate the process with the Office of Student Advocacy and Support (OSAS), who is best able to assist you through the medical withdrawal process. There is no opportunity for a retroactive medical withdrawal.
Before submitting your CAP Appeal, the appeal types below require all preceding steps to be completed for full consideration.
Requests for a late withdrawal (e.g., replacement of a letter grade with a 'W') must first be submitted via a Petition for Enrollment Policy Exception (PEPE) and decided upon by SMU’s Registrar's Office. Students must submit the PEPE and decision notification documents with their CAP Appeal. To do this:
You must have received an email notification from the University Advising Center (pre-majors) or your School Record’s office (declared students) notifying you of your academic suspension or dismissal from SMU.
Please adhere to the timelines and processes associated with appealing the suspension or dismissal as stated in your notification letter from the university.
Students requesting reinstatement must begin the process with the Registrar's office via their website.
Undergraduate students who have been suspended are required to attach a personal statement to their reinstatement application. This personal statement should include:
Returning students are strongly advised to apply for reactivation or reinstatement at least 60 days prior to the start of the term of re-entry.
A student who petitions for an exception to or waiver of academic policy must first follow any procedure that applies to the particular type of request. Therefore, please consult your University Catalog for policies that apply to your circumstance.
Undergraduates are encouraged to consult their academic advisor or a university official prior to submitting an appeal.
The appeal must include a clear statement for each of the following items. Our webform will require you to paste your text responses for each of the three component parts and upload any additional supporting documents. We recommend that you prepare this statement in advance before completing the form.
The Committee on Academic Petitions may request that you provide additional information if the submission is incomplete. If asked, the student will have up to three business days to respond.
An SMU undergraduate student must submit their appeal to the Committee on Academic Petitions via the electronic submission form.
Committee on Academic Petitions
cap@smu.edu
Office of the Provost
Division of Academic Affairs
SMU
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