How to Accept

If you are among the students that earn a scholarship through the OneApp process, your work is not quite done. You need to accept your award before we apply funding to your tuition. The process looks like this:

  1. Receive an email offering the scholarship with a link to accept. Or, you may just log in to OneApp and receive a notification that you have been offered a scholarship to accept. Click the link to accept.
  2. You confirm that you would like to accept the scholarship by clicking “Accept.”
  3. OneApp directs you to post-acceptance steps required for your award. Many scholarships require recipients to upload donor thank you notes. When required, the funding is not applied until the thank you note is received and approved

Accept your award

Post acceptance

At Iowa State, post acceptance is an important phase of the scholarship process. Some awards may have unique post acceptance questions to answer, while many will require a thank you note be uploaded so that we may send it to the donor who provided your funds. Regardless, Iowa State cannot apply scholarship dollars to your University bill unless post acceptance steps are completed. Don't miss this last step.

Thank you letters

Nothing is appreciated more than a kind letter of thanks. The funds you receive come from real people who have given their own assets to assist you and other students. Writing a thank you letter to a benefactor will let them know that you appreciate their generosity and will make them feel good about the support they are providing.

  1. Refer to the scholarship by its name as shown in your award letter.
  2. Tell the donor about yourself. Items may include:
    1. Where you are from
    2. Year of study (junior, graduate, etc.)
    3. Major
    4. Why you chose ISU
    5. Accomplishments
    6. Organizational involvement
    7. Professional affiliations
    8. How the scholarship has helped you (Do not mention the amount of your scholarship award)
    9. Goals
    10. Future plans
    11. Thank the donor for their generosity in providing the scholarship and tell the donor how their support has made a difference to your education.
  3. Please proof your letter. Make sure it is grammatically correct and well organized. You are not only representing yourself, but Iowa State University.
  4. Please limit your letter to one page, but do not be too brief.

A well-written letter reflects favorably on you and is important to the scholarship donors who appreciate learning about you, your goals and future plans.