<p>So I'll be applying to MIT this fall and I know that they request a letter of rec from a humanities teacher, however, I was wondering whether this is a requirement. I was planning to ask a bio teach as well as an AP environmental sci. teacher for all of my recs. Would this not be allowed for MIT and if it was allowed would not having a humanities rec weaken my app. Any responses from current students who have dealed with this situation or those that will be applying this fall would be appreciated. </p>
<p>“We require two teacher evaluations - please give them to your teachers early! One (“Evaluation A”) should be from a math or science teacher and one (“Evaluation B”) should be from a humanities teacher.”</p>
<p>You can send in a third recommendation if it would add something to your application, but you really should send a humanities one in. You really have no one to ask?</p>
<p>I definitely plan on asking my bio teacher, esp. because thats what I plan to major in but on the humanities side its not that I have no one to ask I just felt like my envi. sci. teacher would write me a better rec. because I showed more passion for that class and had a better relationship with the teacher. I could ask my spanish or history teachers but I feel that the quality of their recs would not be as good. This is why I am struggling</p>
<p>You do need a humanities teacher, no getting around that. You can ask your envi. sci. teacher as well, but I’d only recommend that if its going to add something new to your application that neither of the other teachers can say.</p>
<p>I highly doubt it. Letters of recommendation are not just about your aptitude for the subject, but about your attitude, the effort you put in, what you do in and outside of the classroom, and basically what makes you awesome. Sure, they might not care if your humanities grades are a little lower, but they want to hear great things about you regardless of who’s writing the recommendation.</p>
<p>Also remember, MIT’s GIRs include 8 HASS subjects (humanities, arts, and social sciences), so clearly they do put some value on non-math / science classes.</p>
<p>I imagine that they weigh the letter from the humanities teacher equally. After all, MIT does emphasize the humanities despite it being an institute of technology. MIT wants all their students to have good writing and communications skills which is why they require 8 HASS classes, with two needing to be communications intensive.</p>
<p>Absolutely, they are looking to get a true picture of a student. If you cannot find a humanities teacher that has anything nicer to say about you than “He or she was in my class”, then that says a lot. My guess is that then that would weigh more heavily in your application rather than less.</p>