Dear Sir/Madam,

　　In the capacity of the former chairman of the Department of Finance and the associate dean of Business School in YYY University (P. R. China), I am writing with pleasure to recommend Ms. Sophie XXX to your esteemed graduate school.

　　Ms. XXX is a distinguished student in the department. I know her well through different occasions, besides teaching her a Financial Engineering course last year. I got to know her personally 2 years ago, when she was a candidate for exchange-student program of YYY University. Concerning her unspectacular academic results and her outstanding performance, she was awarded our university’s scholarship and a chance to study abroad in ZZZ University, which only one student from our department can receive every year. Her semester-long experience there turned out to be an impressive success. Ms. XXX showed great aptitude on all the courses she took and her GPA of that semester was 3.80. If you take the difficulty of the courses and strict grading into account, you will understand why her scores are among the top five. Undoubtedly, she got excellent scores on other core courses and ranked among the top 5% of her class when she got her bachelor’s degree.

　　Having been Ms. XXX’s director while she was completing her undergraduate thesis defense in 2008, I was greatly impressed with her skillful diagrams, and with the unified and coherent manner in which she articulated her thesis. She chose a daring topic – stock index futures arbitrage. In China, this is a very hot event. Although there are several models around the world, not one yet has been found suitable for China. She proposed a very feasible one in her thesis paper. Moreover, she also demonstrated a high level of proficiency in using statistic software in her research. Not only was the committee struck by the display of creativity at her thesis defense conference, her lucid presentation expressed clear and logic thought. Her expansive and open-minded academic perspectives really struck a chord, so it gives me a great deal of pleasure to give you my recommendation to this outstanding young lady of immense promise.

　　After she graduated from YYY University, she still keeps in touch with me. I feel very delighted when she told me she would like to pursue her advanced studies in your honored program. I trust her academic excellence, spirit of devotion and pleasant personality warrant your serious consideration of her application. Should there be any way in which I can be of further assistance in your deliberations, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

　　Sincerely yours,

　　Associate Dean of Business School

　　YYY University