Dear Members of the University Admissions Committee:

My name is Ming XXX and my current position is General Manager of the XXX Securities Asset Management Co., Ltd, Shanghai. In the winter vacation (from Jan. to Feb.) this year, Miss XXX did a 2-month internship at our firm as an intern analyst and, ever since then, she has been maintaining regular contacts with me. She has kept me informed of what and how she is doing and she has been following the business development of our firm with considerable interest. I am convinced that my acquaintance with the applicant for nearly one year can equip me for insightful understanding of the applicant both as a student and as a would-be financial practitioner.

Based in Shanghai, China, XXX Securities (http://www.xxxx.com.cn) operates as a leading securities brokerage company whose business include covering securities sales, independent business, trading agents, investment consulting, financial consulting, corporate acquisition, fund, and asset management. Each summer, we attract a huge number of internship applications and only the best students of finance from top institutions can meet our high standards. Miss XXX succeeded in being recruited by us on the strength of her impressive academic record at a top-notch international business school in China. During the interview, she demonstrated a full range of knowledge in economics, finance and accountancy, along with an unquenchable passion for knowing finance as it is practiced in the real-world situations in order to prepare for a career in the finance sector. All the interviewers were impressed by her sheer enthusiasm for success.

As intern analyst, Miss XXX came under my mentoring and I found her a fast and smart learner. She demonstrated good abilities to apply academic knowledge to real-world issues and proved increasingly competent at executing her duties. My own field of expertise is the equity analysis in food industry and, after Miss XXX got comfortably familiar with our business practices, I assigned her to perform equity analysis on a sub-industry—dairy products manufacturing. In screening the stocks worth buying, Miss XXX was intelligent enough to focus on value investment, scrupulously examining financial statements by a company over the years, its capacity for continuous development, its corporate structure and governance, innovativeness, market share and potential growth rate, etc. Being cautious and responsible, she had the habit of making phone calls to the secretaries of the company’s top management to inquire into its future plans, strategies and business predictions. With those exhaustive investigations, she prepared analytical reports that featured financial models, valuation, and possible returns and her recommendations provided a solid reference for our traders to make trading decisions.

In a recent telephone conversation with me, Miss XXX informed of her internships since this summer, on General Electric (GE)’s global Financial Management Programme (FMP) and China Gateway Investment Management. Having gained in-depth understanding of Chinese financial market through her internship at our company, she has acquired international experiences and perspectives through those two latter internships. At GE, she learned the importance of observing and practicing international financial principles and standards whereas at China Gateway she learned the business practices of carrying out private equity projects from senior partners with strong backgrounds at leading financial institutions.

In discussing with me about her motivation for the proposed programme of study, Miss XXX described it as multi-faceted, one of which being her broad exposure to the financial industry and the powerful influence that many outstanding role models have exerted on her. It is her belief that finance is exactly the field where her talents lie and a financial career, both exciting and challenging, is a perfect match for her aggressive personal trait. She has the full confidence in following the footsteps of her role models and achieving significant self-actualization.

I believe the applicant’s preparations up to this point can fully qualify her for your programme of study. She has studied finance and related subjects with strong intellectual curiosity and over the years has come to develop outstanding scholastic aptitudes, both of which make her the most outstanding student in her class. She is capable of perceptive and original research and, with her in-depth knowledge in accounting, she is capable of insightful analysis of various financial statements of corporations, making her evaluations of their financial conditions objective and accurate. In doing equity research at our company, she demonstrated good skills in applying sophisticated valuation models, which indicated her solid mathematics caliber in Calculus, Linear Algebra, Probability and Statistics. On the other hand, few college students have taken such a great initiative to gain industry experiences and in such a comprehensive manner. I believe that Miss XXX is capable of a high level of professionalism in whatever field she chooses to work, financial management, equity research, or PE and her aggressive attitude will land her onto a senior position in the not-too-distant future.

Miss XXX was a proactive member of our team. During her internship, we were impressed by her eagerness to learn. She knew that knowledge derived from college education is a necessary foundation and experience could only come from the actual process of analyzing and solving problems. Being energetic and sociable, she loved learning from senior analysts and interacting with them thoroughly. At discussions, she loved to present her own unique analysis and invite comments by colleagues. She was required to present her daily research in daily reports, which were well-structured, informative, lucid and compelling. With her outstanding English proficiency, she kept herself well-informed of the developments in the global financial market by accessing such websites as http://www.bloomberg.com/ and this comprehensive information allowed her to examine the Chinese market in proper context and thus to arrive at more accurate understanding of the changing situations.

To summarize, Miss XXX is a marvelous and intelligent young lady who has carefully and clearly thought out her career path and knows exactly what she should do in order to enter the exciting profession of finance. An undeniable fact is that the Chinese financial market is a seriously underdeveloped one and by learning innovative approaches Miss XXX and a whole new generation of overseas-trained financial professionals could contribute to the robust development of the market in the future. Therefore, I deem her decision to apply for your programme a well-considered one and with well-defined objectives she is bound to go very far in her career. I would like to let her enjoy my most unreserved support in all her application endeavors and your favorable consideration of this outstanding young lady, a most valuable addition to your elite student community, would be highly appreciated.

Yours sincerely;

Ming XXXX

Ph.D. in Economics
General Manager of the XXX Securities Asset Management Co., Ltd, Shanghai
Email: xxxx@xxxx
Phone: +86-xxxxxxx