(Ames, Iowa) – Iowa State University graduate school programs have started rescinding offers to prospective students as departments scramble to respond to funding uncertainties.  The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports someone who identified themselves as an international, prospective Ph.D. student posted a letter online they received from ISU on March 5 stating an offer the student had previously received from the university’s department of chemistry was being withdrawn “due to current uncertainties with federal research funding that supports most work done by graduate students at research universities.”

According to the letter, even if the student was able to accept the offer, the university couldn’t guarantee it would be able to provide a graduate assistantship to them. The name of the sender and recipient were removed from the letter by the recipient.  “This decision in no way reflects on the quality of your graduate school application,” the letter stated.

ISU spokesperson Angie Hunt provided a statement from the university in response to questions from the Iowa Capital Dispatch. She did not provide information on how many offers have been rescinded from what programs. She also did not say how graduate enrollment will be impacted and if a recent preliminary injunction from a federal judge halting proposed 15% indirect funding caps on National Institutes of Health grants has changed this practice. As of fall 2024, ISU has 4,170 enrolled graduate students and 634 professional students.

“Iowa State’s academic units are currently reviewing offers for graduate student admissions and apprenticeships,” Hunt, on behalf of ISU, said in an emailed statement. “Based on unprecedented acceptance rates and uncertainties with funding, some departments have made the prudent yet difficult decision to rescind offers to some graduate students who had not yet accepted their offer of admission.”

The university posts updates online on how grant projects and other federally funded programs should respond to federal actions.