Dear Sir/Madam:
I am writing this letter of recommendation for Mr.Caleb,my
former student. I have known Mr. Caleb for more than 6 years since
his freshman year at "University of Minnesota". At that
time, he took the course-- "Mathematical Analysis," which
I taught mainly for junior students majoring in Mathematics. To my
surprise, I found he was among the few students in his class who
could keep up with the pace of my lectures. Moreover, he often posed
thought-provoking questions during the course. Thus it was natural
that I liked discussing with this young man and became familiar with
him. The more I knew him, the more I found he was talented at
mathematics. As you can see, he got excellent scores on the course.
In fact, he ranked No. 1 on this 270 hours course in the talented
student class which has 34 intelligent others.
With his outstanding talent and solid mathematical
background, he also did quite well in most other courses during his
undergraduate study. By the way, you may wonder why his
undergraduate scores look not so good compared to other Chinese
applicants. It is easy to explain, because he belonged to the
talented student class, which were required to endure harder test
papers and stricter grading than most other college students did at
least at "University of Minnesota".
He even served as Prof. Linda 's Research Assistant for one
year. No one could deny his commitment to his job. As a matter of
fact, Prof. Linda's electronic lab happened to be neighboring my
office and I could always see him working in the lab, either
repairing the instruments or helping Prof. Linda collect lab
reports. Maybe one more example will demonstrate his commitment more
clearly. Once he suggested compiling a FORTRAN program to solve a
complicated circuit problem in his class. In order to do that, he
had to do a lot of computer work. However, because there were few
computers available in our computer lab, he had to wake up at 5 a.m.
in winter (please note: "Twin city" is a downtown near the
north border of China, so it is pretty cold in winter and the
heating system is not working very well.) to ensure the 1st position
of the long waiting line for his classmates and himself! At last he
and his classmates finished the program successfully with his great
efforts.
As to his personality, I would like to say Mr. Caleb is a
warm-hearted, honest and upright student. He was always ready to
help others. During my lectures, many students got confused at some
points and I could always see Mr. Caleb help them explain during
breaks. In the meanwhile, I must admit that Mr. Caleb was a bit
impatient sometimes.
Finally, I would like to conclude my recommendation as
follows: frankly, Mr. Caleb is not a genius, but I promise his great
intelligence, commitment to work and his kind nature will impress
you deeply. Thus I recommend him without reservation for his
admission and financial aid to your program. Please feel free to
contact me if needed.
Sincerely Yours,
XXX