Dear Sir or Madam:

As Dean of the Department of Financial Engineering, College of Finance, University of International Business and Economics, I would like to offer my utmost support to Mr. Wu XXX who is currently applying for entry into your prestigious financial engineering Master’s program. I hope that, by undertaking your graduate program, Mr. Wu will be an influential financial engineer in our country.

I made my acquaintance with Mr. Wu in 20XX, who was then a graduate student of computer science at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (now changed to Beihang University). I was then working on a collaborative project with a credit assessment company on credit scoring and our research group needed an experienced computer programmer. Mr. Wu saw our recruitment and through several rounds of strict screening tests, he was admitted into our group. His strong background in computer programming and in mathematics, as well as his own interest in finance, made him an appropriate member.

The central part of the project was to use both the Credit Scoring Model and the Default Probability Model to classify different companies and enterprises that apply for bank loans into different categories of credit. Under my direction, Mr. Wu assumed most of the responsibility for constructing the financial models and carrying out computations. We started with a comparative study of several of the existing credit risk models, including Credit Metrics Model/Credit-VaR, KMV Credit Monitor Model, Credit Risk+ Model, and Credit Portfolio View. Finally, in view of the characteristics of Chinese enterprises and by analyzing and verifying the historical data of medium-sized listed companies over a period from 20XX to 20XX, we chose the options-based KMV model for our credit scoring.

In his research, Mr. Wu’s superb mathematics and computer programming expertise played a crucial role. He used the relevant computer software to process and analyzed a substantial quantity of data and carried out calculations concerning the enterprise value assessment and model parameter estimates needed in the model. He was very quick-minded to grasp the fundamental principles of the KMV model and made a flexible use of the model to calculate the default probability of some enterprises. During that period, I came to notice that Mr. Wu became increasingly interested in financial engineering. Moreover, for six months that the project went on, he kept learning useful knowledge in finance, on such subjects as financial market, derivatives, option pricing, and credit risk models. All those enabled him to become increasingly skillful in combining his financial knowledge with quantitative analysis and computer programming. Throughout the project, he demonstrated sound research abilities and effective teamwork and he obviously had an in-depth understanding about using mathematical models to study the credit of the corporate and business world.

Even though our project was completed years ago, Mr. Wu’s interest in financial engineering has kept growing as he has discovered his full potential in the field. I can apparently observe his marked progress over recent years in learning economic and financial theories and analyzing the economic and financial changes that are happening in China. He told me that he is a regular subscriber of World Economic Report, a leading financial and economic newspaper that offers the most in-depth and authoritative coverage of the latest developments in economy, finance, politics, business, real estates, and other industries both at home and abroad. At my recommendation, he regularly visits the www.economist.com and makes it a habit of discussing with me the recent issues. I am very happy to provide him with knowledge in economics and finance in relation to the real world events.

In 20XX, I was responsible for launching the Department of Financial Engineering under the College of Finance and I have been serving as the Dean of the Department. This coincided with Mr. Wu’s growing interest in financial engineering and he has been spending his spare time auditing some of the courses that are offered to our undergraduates. Those courses include Financial Engineering, Derivatives, and Risk Management. This auditing experience will lay a good foundation for him to pursue more advanced education in the field.

With China becoming a member country of WTO, China has fully opened its financial market from the very beginning of 20XX. Chinese financial institutions and the entire financial sector have to compete against their international counterparts on an equal basis. It is obvious that China’s financial industry calls for well-trained financial professionals. As a financial researcher, I appreciate Mr. Wu’s initiative as an aspiring and ambitious young man. I believe that he has the necessary academic and professional foundations to succeed in a most rigorous and challenging Master’s program in financial engineering. Most importantly, he has a most firm motivation to venture into a new field which he believes would lead to a more exciting career path. A systematic training in financial engineering through your esteemed program would give him the platform to soar. For this reason, I hope that you share my comment of this promising young man, recognize his special talents, and accept him into your prestigious program.

Yours sincerely
Liu XXX

Professor of Finance
Post-Doctoral in Financial Mathematics of Peking University
Dean of the Department of Financial Engineering
College of Finance, University of International Business and Economics