Showing Your Appreciation

How to Write an Exceptional Thank You Letter

Alumni, their families, and friends of the College of Arts and Sciences generously donate the funding and provide the inspiration for many College of Arts and Sciences scholarships, fellowships, and awards. In response to their kindness, we ask that student recipients prepare a letter of thanks letting them know how their gift will be beneficial to you in your academic and future career endeavors.

Be sure to follow the content and format guidelines listed on this page to ensure your letter is formatted correctly and includes all of the required components to avoid revisions and delays!

How to Start Your Letter

• Introduce yourself by name
• Include your scholarship, fellowship, or award by name in bold (no amounts)
• Use words such as “thank you”, “I am grateful”, and “I appreciate”
• Let them know how this scholarship, fellowship, or award has impacted you and your pursuit of higher education

Other Ideas to Include

• Where you are from, your high school, and your general family background
• Why you chose to attend WSU
• Your academic interests and class standing at WSU
• Things you enjoy in your spare time
• Other awards or honors you received
• Are you in a RSO or student club? Tell them about it!
• Your community engagement, leadership, and service activities
• Your future career plans, goals, and aspirations

Why Write a Thank You Letter

• As a recipient, your hard work has been recognized, and it has been made possible by the generous support of WSU alumni and friends.
• A thank you letter is a great way to let a donor know how much you appreciate their generosity and how their investment is making a difference.
• By writing a thank you letter, you are letting donors know that you are the kind of person they hoped would be the recipient of their generosity – a sincere, responsible, and grateful student whose life has been enhanced through a scholarship, fellowship, award, or travel/research support.

Before Submitting Your Letter

Proofread your letter thoroughly to ensure spelling, grammar, and punctuation is correct and all components are included prior to emailing your completed letter to the CAS scholarship coordinator at cas.scholarships@wsu.edu.

*Failure to follow the content and format guidelines and include all required components in your thank you letter will jeopardize the disbursement of your funds.*

Multiple Report Recipients

If there is more than one individual to thank, address your thank you letter to each household in a separate document by their preferred salutation. The fund background that accompanies your offer letter lists all individuals to thank and their preferred salutation.

Personal Photo

Insert a high resolution photo of yourself. If taking your own photo, dress appropriately and make sure there is a nice background.

Electronic Signature

Add a personal touch by including your electronic signature. Sign a piece of white copy paper in blue ink and scan it, or take a picture of it and insert it into your letter like a photo.

Deadline

Make sure to email completed thank you letter(s) to cas.scholarships@wsu.edu by the deadline listed on your offer letter(s). Failure to complete this step, follow the content and format guidelines, and include all required components in your thank you letter will jeopardize the disbursement of your funds.