<p>It’s been most of a week, an nobody has responded, which makes sense, given that nobody on this board, apart from possibly MITChris can give authoritative answers to these questions. Nonetheless, I can try to give these a shot with the proviso that I am not an admissions officer, so what the heck do I know.</p>
<p>You indicate that “the forms are designed with applicants from American high schools in mind.” While this is no doubt broadly accurate, as an international EC, I have seen many students apply using this form without difficulty. For example, A-levels go into the space on part 2 of the application specifically designated for A-levels or IB results. </p>
<p>The international part of the application does not appear to be the root of your problem. Your problem is that because “eventually I dropped out”, you are not applying from a school. It is that which makes school reports, LoR’s and the like difficult. Since most students take their A-levels at the end of their last year in school, most Commonwealth countries have developed rigorous systems of predicting A-levels results, which is what goes on application forms from Oxford to the University of Zimbabwe (it is also why these schools offer conditional acceptances). You don’t have that, which does make things trickier.</p>
<p>As to the letters of recommendation, for traditionally educated students, MIT requires one from a math or science teacher who knows you in an academic environment, and one from a humanities, social science, or language teacher, who again knows you in an academic context. As I see it, you have two options. Since you attended school for years 7-12, you should have teachers you can ask to fulfill this requirement. Your tutor is not one of them. However, MIT does accept supplemental letters of recommendation from someone who knows you in a different way (usually an employer, sports coach, or the like). That would be an obvious place to include your tutor’s letter.</p>
<p>The alternative, is to claim that you are homeschooled, and follow the different application requirements for the homeschooled ([Homeschooled</a> Students | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/homeschool]Homeschooled”>For home educators | MIT Admissions)), which again is a little bit tricky in someone who attended school for years 7-12. </p>
<p>In either case, somewhere on your application you will have to confront the elephant in the room, which is that you dropped out of school. You will need to explain to the admissions officers how and why this happened to give them enough confidence that you are not going to drop out of MIT, should it not be going according to your plan, whatever that might be. Do understand, that I am not in any way judging your decision. It may well have been entirely appropriate, or even necessary. However, you will need to explain that to the admissions office.</p>