<p>Your teacher rec's will also speak to your personal qualities and characters. When you as for recs, mention this to the teachers as nicely as you can. If they can include a little vignette in the teacher showing what sort of person you are, it will distinguish you from the herd of other really smart kids that are applying to MIT.</p>
<p>I followed the MIT/Caltech results in April (just out of curiousity - my son didn't apply to either). I was surprised that there were not more cross admits. MIT wanted excellent stats - and a spark of some sort. Caltech seemed to demand a higher level of perfection academically. </p>
<p>For MIT to see that spark, you have to communicate it in your words as well, as mollieatmit has noted. Start the essays early - you don't want them to be rushed or poorly thought-out.</p>