Statement of Interest

Submitted by Shwadhin Sharma in partial fulfillment of the requirement for admission

to the Department of Finance and Real Estate, Ph.D., University of Texas at Arlington,
USA.

I am student of business administration from Nepal. I have recently completed my Master

of Business Administration (MBA) with major in Finance from my own country. With the
economy that has been running solely with the contribution from financial institutions,
there have been increasing opportunities and promising avenues for research on financial
applications. However, due to the lack of proper academic institutions to pursue higher
degrees on research oriented programs such as Ph.D., the interested students have no
choice but to go abroad to achieve their goal and I am one of them.

I have always been interested towards such programs that provide intensive study of the
theory and empirical analysis of finance. This is the reason for me to major in Finance in
my Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) as well as Masters of Business
Administration (MBA). During my undergraduate and graduate studies, I got good
knowledge of Finance including its three basic aspects; Capital markets and institutions,
Investment and Financial management. Due to the increasing number of financial
institutions and rapid improvisation of securities market in Nepal, the study of Capital
market and financial institutions has emerged with lots of opportunities. The subject area
of Investment has not yet come up clearly to the front stage as the concept of portfolio
management is still in its early stage. And the broadest of all the three areas and one with
greatest opportunities in Nepal is the Financial management/Corporate Finance.

During my graduate, I have made few researches and have completed handful of project
works. My project works and researches are usually related to financial institutions,
Capital market and Corporate finance. I have always been interested in both empirical
and theoretical research in areas such as the structure of financial markets, the formation
and behavior of financial asset prices, the findings on corporate control and capital
structure and mostly the development of international financial market. These are some of
the few topics that have lured me throughout my academic and professional career. I have
been interested in mastering all the basic areas of finance with intensive research on
Capital markets and institutions. This is the foremost reason for me to decide to pursue
Ph.D. in finance. I hope the combination of classroom instructions, seminars, independent
studies and individual work with faculty will prepare me as a “Lifetime Student”, for
whom the learning process will keep on continuing even with the granting of the degree.

However, in a developing country like Nepal, extensive researches on all these aspects of
Finance have not yet been done and people hardly have good knowledge regarding these
topics. With new development in the Nepalese financial market, the opportunities for
extensive research in the Corporate finance and Capital markets and institutions are huge.
At present, there are no such academic institutions providing an extensive research
program for any aspects of finance. At such, I have an opportunity and a responsibility to
serve my nation by achieving and extensive research degree on finance.
I believe that this Doctoral program at University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) would
help me to accomplish my dream and develop a sense of scientific curiosity on me. At
UTA I intend to concentrate in Finance and I consider it to be the strongest means that
could contribute tremendously to the achieving of my long-term objective. Needless to
say, it has an impressive faculty and a strong academic reputation. I am very much
impressed with the work of its faculty members. I am also attracted to the small class
sizes of UTA as it would enable me to work closely, share experiences, and exchange
ideas with my professors and peers.

My desire to attend the Ph.D. program stems from a realization that my undergraduate
and graduate education was only a starting point in learning the necessary finance skills.
While my major in Finance degrees supplied the foundation of knowledge for this field
and my employment background has allowed me to understand and utilize technical
aspects of finance, I have not yet learned the critical skills to improvise the application of
finance theories in real world phenomenon. Specialization through the Ph.D. program is
crucial, as I have noticed how other scholars apply their specific area of knowledge to the
understanding of disciplines. I seek this level of knowledge in finance, so that I can
handle many different problems that might defy the application of standard rules. This
program would also help me to make an intensive study of the theory and empirical
analysis of Finance to contribute some thing new and worthy to the world and to my
country at such. Finance is supposed to be the explanation of rational human behavior
reflected in the financial markets. The idea of maximizing expected return and
minimizing risk is simple but breathtakingly powerful in explaining how assets are
valued. I enjoy learning about the interaction of economic variable like inflation or
interest rates, how the economy works and how changes of factors like currency return or
oil price affects market movement.

My ability in pursuing the Ph.D. degree in finance lies on the knowledge I have achieved
in my undergraduate and graduate level. The projects works and researches that I have
made during my academic and professional career have equipped me with analytical and
econometric skills. I appeared in GMAT exam in which I scored 550 including both
Verbal and Quantitative section. I have taken Paper based TOEFL exam, the result of
which is yet to come. I am confident that if I am given the opportunity to study at your
university, it will provide an environment competitive enough to bring out the best in me.

After achieving my research degree, I would like to pursue my professional career as a

teacher, scholar and a researcher in the field of Capital market and structure of financial
institutions. I would like to share my knowledge, both empirical and theoretical, with all
the students willing to attain higher education on finance. I hope that I would be able to
contribute to my society as a professor as it would give me an opportunity to bring out
talents, encourage innovation and nurture a new generation of learners. Beside that, the
line of research I hope to pursue in long term is of the development of financial market of
emerging countries. I have always wondered whether established finance theory applies
to the behavior of developing countries or whether there are alternative models to explain
such market behavior. If considered the Nepalese market, many queries such as the
reasons for the huge volatility and low liquidity of the financial markets and the
instability of them are still unanswered. There has been no extensive research in Nepal
regarding the common factors driving the market variations and the relation of ownership
of banks with the productivity growth. Through the Ph.D. program, I hope to find
answers to the above queries and to conduct extensive research on similar financial
market topics.

I believe there is still much to be explored and studied in finance academia, and I believe
that the UTA’s doctoral program would equip me with the knowledge necessary to
understand and apply finance theories, which I could in turn bring to my teaching and
research career. I am optimistic about the acceptance of my application and I hope to
receive a research assistantship to support my Ph.D.. I am committed and determined to
succeeding at the Ph.D. program. I affirm that I will abide by the roles and regulations set
by the authority and I would try my best to add to the fame and glory of the interest.

Sincerely Yours, ………………………………

Shwadhin Sharma Date: February 12, 2007