<p>So hello everyone, I'm just a newbie to these forums and the American college application process (I'm a international), so please bear with me.</p>
<p>First thing I was wondering is about the recommendation letters. It says that we need 1 letter from each a math/science teacher and a humanities teacher. So I'm kind of wondering what a humanities teacher is. Is it a language/history teacher? If so, would French count (it's a foreign language at my school)?</p>
<p>Second, I realize that I also need a recommendation from my counselor; however, he retired just this school year so he won't be at the school next year. Should I somehow ask the school for his contact information? Or would this be inappropriate because it's no longer his job to do that anymore?</p>
<p>Finally, does all applicants need to have some great math/science awards or ECs to get in? Where I live, it's basically an average school. (Only 1 person has ever went to the States in the last 10 years or so and he got into MIT and Stanford for discovering some cure for cancer or some weird things.) Basically, except for that individual, there aren't much opportunities to go to math/science Olympiads and etc. So I'm wondering if MIT also admits people whose ECs don't really show passion to their future major (mine is engineer)</p>
<p>So I hope you guys may help me out and perhaps give me some hope for next fall's application!</p>
<p>Yes, a French teacher would count as a humanities teacher. </p>
<p>As for the counselor, you should as the school’s new counselor to write you the official recommendation, however if you don’t feel he knows you well enough you could contact your old counselor and ask him to write you a supplemental rec (he can explain the situation to them as well). As long as you’re respectful when you ask for it, I don’t think he’d have a problem writing it for you even though its no longer his job.</p>
<p>And Ecs / awards… MIT definitely takes your circumstances into account when evaluating you. So if your school doesn’t have a ton of math / science opportunities, they aren’t going to hold that against you. You do have to demonstrate somehow that you can handle MIT’s GIRs (calculus, physics, biology, and chemistry), but this can be done through a combination of SAT scores, classes and their respective grades, ECs, awards, etc. You definitely don’t have to have all math / science ECs, or have won some major awards to get in (I know I didn’t). But remember it is really hard to get into MIT, especially for internationals, so you will have to give them some good reason to accept you.</p>
<p>Math and science Olympiads aren’t the only way to demonstrate your passion. Creating random electronic devices at home, or freelance website designing are all good examples of demonstrating passion without fancy awards.</p>
<p>If there aren’t opportunities, you can try to make your own: create a club at your school, ask teachers and professors for research opportunities even if they look at you weirdly. Just because people have never done these kinds of things in your city before doesn’t mean you can’t be the first one to do them. ;)</p>
<p>I agree with everything adamonkey said, but I just want to add that if you’re more interested in non-math / science ECs, that’s ok too. Don’t try to do stuff like that just because you think its what MIT wants, there is plenty of other fun stuff that you can do too (sports, drama, volunteering, whatever).</p>
<p>As an international EC, I have regularly met admitted students from schools which offer few if any opportunities for budding scientists and engineers. That does not inherently count against you. What is important is to ensure that you take fullest advantage of the limited opportunities available to you.
As to the counselor, that really depends on your relationship to this person. You are quite right in that it is not his or her job to do this anymore. Therefore asking it may well be inappropriate. However, if you had developed a genuine friendship with this person over the years, as opposed to a friendly but casual acquaintanceship, then that is a different matter. Clearly asking a friend who knows you well for a letter is a different situation. Then the letter is not being written because its the counselor’s job, the letter is being written because it is the counselor’s friend, a whole different ballgame.
So it is up to you to figure out how much you can presume on the friendship, and if you cannot presume on the friendship (and/or there isn’t a friendship to presume on), then get the new counselor to write the letter. That is after all, their job. That being said, it makes sense for you to make an appointment to meet with this person and make sure that they have a sense of who you are.</p>