from: **
department of the special class gifted for youths
university of science and technology
hefei, anhui 230026, p.r. china
july 1, 1998
dear sir or madam:
i take great pleasure in recommending ren ren, one of my favorite students, for admission into your distinguished graduate program.
mr. ren was admitted in 1986 at 14 years of age into the special class for the gifted youths, my university's unique program that caters to the intellectual needs of unusually talented chinese youngsters. it was a rare privilege he earned with his nearly impeccable academic performance through the years of his elementary and secondary school.
he impressed me almost as he entered into my university, a major cradle of china's scientific and technological talents. at the time, members of the gifted class all had to spend half a month studying by themselves the principles of calculus and then take an exam so that we could evaluate their self-study capability. mr. ren scored the highest grade in that exam. he also exhibited a keenly whetted mind during class discussions. to my regret at the time, his english was not as good as his mathematics or physics. but i noticed he made a point of working especially hard in improving his english during his five undergraduate years with us. by now, he seems to be at least as proficient in english as most of his former classmates in the gifted class.in my experience with mr. ren, i was impressed with not only his extraordinary intelligence but also his ambitions and persistence. i am sure that mr. ren will be an outstanding student in any doctoral program that he may care to enroll in. so i would like to support him firmly in his quest recommendation into account when considering his application. i would greatly appreciate it you decide to accept him as he wishes.
yours ***
** professor and deputy head