<p>As Mollie says, you can submit a supplemental recommendation from a second math/science teacher (<em>if</em> they have something new and unique to say about you, make sure it's not a repeat of what the first math/science rec is likely to say), but you are required to find a "humanities, social science, or language" teacher to write you that second required rec. This could be a teacher in any of a wide variety of disciplines, it doesn't have to be someone teaching "humanities". If you have great grades in English, why not ask an English teacher who knows you to write a rec for you?</p>
<p>Humanities also includes history or language courses in this context. I agree I wouldn't be thrilled about a recommendation from an illiterate English teacher, though maybe MIT would look favorable on a lower verbal score since you were clearly handicapped by a lousy teacher?</p>
<p>Yeah, very handicapped. She teaches AP Literature, and this year is the first year students are required to take the AP exam. So, the other day we had to write down literature terms and she was calling out definitions really fast, and it was like...shocker, we have to do work...and during that time a kid said aloud "what is this, an AP class or something?", making a joke, but it's sad because even though it's had the AP title for several years, it's a complete joke. She's the cheerleading captain, so all the cheerleaders immediately sign up thinking "easy A here i come". People leave her class at will,</p>
<p>"i'm going to my car to get my hoodie k?"</p>
<p>walk around, sit on her desk, talk to her to try and distract her, other kids who are late in the hallways come to her class asking her to write a teacher excuse for them...yeah she's popular with the students but her recs suck.</p>
<p>
I meant that the grades are good from the above teacher, who teaches english; i thought humanities directly meant = english.</p>
<p>
Yeah in fact, I have a really great teacher who taught me english in grade 9 and spanish I in grade 8 and i did a lot of activites with her (she really trusted me with personal assignments), but unfortunately she left after my 1st year in highschool.</p>
<p>You guys think I should try to contact her or just take the rec from my ap prep english 11 and ap english 12 teacher, no matter how sloppy it may be?</p>
<p>Try and see if you can contact the teacher from 9th grade to write your letter of rec. I don't know about getitng a letter from an 8th grade instructor. Most schools prefer letters of rec from those who interacted with you in high school.</p>
<p>I've read several applications that prefered 11th or 12th grade teachers. The only exception I would make is if the teacher is involved in an extracurricular activity. (For example my son's freshman physics teacher also does Science Olympiad so he knows my son quite well.) Even then though we'll have the AP Physics teacher write the recommendation.</p>
<p>Three questions:
1) In the 'Summer Activities' portion, why does MIT ask for you to 'list your most recent summer activity first'? Can I just list the ones I enjoyed most?
2) In the 'Employment' section, does working for 'supplemental financial aide' at my school count as a job? I was never handed a check, but the money did go towards various activities (sports, fine arts, etc.) that I needed funds for.
3) Also, does working for myself in a business venture count as a job?
Thanks</p>
<p>.kurrupt., Matt McGann wrote this about reading recommendations during the process of reading applications:
[quote]
Next, it's time for your teacher recommendations. These can be extremely insightful. The teachers that you've chosen to write on your behalf usually write very enthusiastically about you. The stories they tell and the words they use really can help us to get a better picture of who you are, how you are in the classroom, how you think, how you relate to peers and teachers.
[/quote]
If you choose a teacher who knows you and who can give them a picture of those aspects of your character and scholarship, you've made the right choice.</p>
<p>Is there no other option besides that one English teacher or an 8th/9th grade teacher? How about a history teacher, or a foreign language teacher, or a music teacher, or....?</p>
<p>Alright, I promise I'm not trying to be complicated. The 10th grade English teacher had a lot of students, unless you're in theater, he doesn't really know you, even though I think I was in the top 3 averages of the year. My 10th grade female US History teacher is nice, and we say hi in the halls, but I genuinely hate history =\ I mean I was a "good student", but probably not a "passionate" student...I think it'll definitely be between the early spanish/english teacher if I can find her (which I would've had more classes with her if she stayed!) or the 11th/12th grade teacher. </p>
<p>I know they probably don't recommend 8th/9th grade teachers, but she was the one who'd let me eat lunch with her at will, or use the faculty snack machine or copier by giving me the password, or if she wanted the truth about someone, she'd ask me, or if she wanted me to get her gradebook from her car (which some teachers are really iffy about), I was the one she'd choose...I mean, I was kinda like her personal errands assistant, lol, as silly as it sounds. Every guy tried to get her phone number & she had no problem giving it to me, I guess she just knew I wouldn't tell other kids (i'm a girl though).</p>
<p>But thanks for your input, since she taught at 2 different schools, she didn't head activites...but if I wanted her to head a random activity I decided to do, she probably would have, no joke. I remember a guy from my grade who wanted her to be the new head for the cadre team, and i'm not on the cadre team, and she came and asked me for my opinion (she ultimately declined). We were like best buds :)</p>
<p>
In the 'Summer Activities' portion, why does MIT ask for you to 'list your most recent summer activity first'? Can I just list the ones I enjoyed most?
They probably just needed to pick some way to organize the section. :) You should write the activities you want to have representing your summer -- you're not obligated to list every little thing you ever did over the summer ("talk on the phone, 10 hrs").</p>
<p>I need some advice in terms of where to guide my son on the humanities rec. He has English/social studies/language teachers who would give him good recs, but none of them really know him well (i.e., large public high school). The band instructor has known him throughout hs and my son has done well in the program. </p>
<p>So, do you go with a traditional social studies/English teacher who might write a good rec. or a band teacher who will probably write a great rec.?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I keep going back to Matt's comment above:
[quote]
These can be extremely insightful. The teachers that you've chosen to write on your behalf usually write very enthusiastically about you. The stories they tell and the words they use really can help us to get a better picture of who you are, how you are in the classroom, how you think, how you relate to peers and teachers.
[/quote]
Bearing in mind that <em>probably</em> an academic teacher would be more relevant, can he identify one of the English/social studies/language teachers whom he'd like to have write for him, in the above context (even if it wouldn't be highly personal)? If so, he could go with that teacher and ask the band teacher, who's known him for a long time and in a very different context, to write a supplemental rec. A supplemental rec (or even the first two required recs, for that matter) can just be a letter covering the points asked about in the form. And MIT has surely dealt with this situation before, where an applicant from a very large school is "one of many" to some teachers who will still write enthusiastically. They do take application materials in context.</p>
<p>Good luck to him!</p>
<p>I don't see why a band teacher would be a bad choice at all. My humanities teacher rec for MIT was written by my theatre director.</p>
<p>As mootmom says above, you could always be safe and submit three -- math/sci, band, and social studies/English.</p>
<p>Thanks for the insight. Most appreciated.</p>
<p>I was in the same situation doing my recs - I had a clear choice for my math/sci person and I wanted to do my band teacher because she had been as much a close personal friend as a teacher to me for several years. But I ran into trouble with some of the questions on the humanities teacher rec - for instance, I think one was about whether it was hard work or brilliance of mind that made you succeed in the class. A lot of them seemed kind of irrelevant to playing the clarinet. So I had my English teacher do the humanities rec and submitted the band teacher as a supplemental rec. What I'm really adding on is that it would probably hurt you to send the band teacher rec as your humanities one instead of as a supplemental one because you'll miss a chance to showcase your talents in the classroom.</p>
<p>My daughter used her debate club coach for her humanities letter of rec. She has known her for a number of years so it was very easy for her to write a wonderful letter of rec. As Matt mentioned in his entry you want someone who can provide additional insight. The admissions committee would like to see as many sides of you as possible while going through the decision making process.</p>
<p>So, do you just turn in three recs? One for the math/science teacher and two of the humanities if you are submitting a supplemental? How do you distinguish between the humanities recs in terms of which one should be considered supplemental---or, is this a no-brainer--read all three, please?</p>
<p>While Evaluation A and Evaluation B are provided for math/science and humanities recommendations, they aren't strictly <em>required</em> as long as the writer covers in their letter/narrative the points asked about on the forms. For tracking purposes, it's best to select someone as the "Evaluation A" respondent and someone as the "Evaluation B" respondent, and then the supplemental writer(s) can either fill out an additional "Evaluation A/B" as appropriate, or just send a supplemental letter/narrative. (Be sure any supplemental pages include the applicant's name and birthdate, so it's easier to match with the rest of the file.) Admissions will read everything the applicant sends, and will know what to do with it all. :)</p>