<p>I'm an international transfer student applying to MIT in Fall 2012.</p>
<p>I'm just in my 1st year of bachelor's here in my college, thus most of the professors here at my current college barely know me. Our college has a huge student body & professors rarely keep track of any particular student or even groups. They are more concerned about their own stuff i.e. Research etc. </p>
<p>Anyways, here's the question which I wanted to ask -
For the transfer application it says get an evaluation from a college instructor or professor who has taught you. But instead of getting all the evaluations from the college professors, is it possible for me to get 2 out of 3 eval from the school teachers who knew me for the last 14 years & can write me a brilliant eval ??</p>
<p>Like -
Eval A - College Instructor
Eval B - High School Teacher
Eval C - High School Teacher</p>
<p>Since the evals are the most important thing that MIT refers to after you finish bragging and can be the deciding factor, thus I don't want to risk it by asking college prof who wouldn't even know the importance of all this.</p>
<p>I think recommendations from college professors are more useful, because they give an idea of what you’re like <em>in college</em>, which is different from high school.</p>
<p>What I would do is get to know your college professors. Ask them about their research. Talk with them after class. Maybe even do research with a professor in his lab. In the process they will get to know you as well, and will have something to share about you. You can always have a high school teacher’s recommendation as a supplementary recommendation; regardless, I would try to have at least two of the recommendations be from college professors, preferably one humanities, one science.</p>
<p>^ Only graduate students can participate in research labs & unlike in the USA, here in India professors generally avoid students who try to get too friendly about their research, etc. I have good stats here but that’s the only thing. Professors here care least about the undergraduates & don’t encourage us from transferring to another university, even if its in USA.
Its almost impossible for me to get a good recommendation from a college professor, at this moment when the app is just a few months away. So please let me know if its possible for high school teachers to recommend me for the most part, while there’s just one professor who takes two of our science subjects can write me one rec.</p>
<p>And another thing is that most of our professors here are kind of egoistic & tend to get offended when other university stuff is given to them. So can the professor write on a white piece of paper instead of using MIT eval forms ?
Very stupid question, but very much valid :(</p>
<p>IMO I’d rather read two exempler recs from high school teachers than two mediocre ones from college professors… MIT knows that you have only been in college for less than half a year. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>So, should I ask my college profs for a recommendation or not ?
I mean for more than one ?</p>
<p>Cause, he’s just going to write :
I’m a good student. I pay attention in class.
I’m a good student. I pay attention in class.
I’m a good student. I pay attention in class.
I’m a good student. I pay attention in class.
…</p>
<p>His science is great, but quite dull English & writing skills!</p>
<p>Hello. I don’t think anyone can answer your question because most of us aren’t qualified to give you an answer. I would call the admissions office directly and ask them.</p>
:D</p>