For MIT, please don’t use a 10th or 9th stem teacher. I didn’t get the impression here that focusing on work is a bad rec. Adcoms don’t need to know personal qualities as much as drives, energy, good will. They don’t need a teacher to rehash social skills or clubs. A positive about coming for support. having good questions can show more.
How a college reacts to extra letters depends. If they don’t limit you to two, an internship LoR may be nice especially if it fills in blanks or rounds her out as an individual. But be aware many mentors may not know what an adcom needs to see.
Be sure you understand what MIT or Cornell look for. She can show much about personal traits in her activities (depth and breadth, not just stem activities) and essay. But you need a good feel for what those attributes are.
I would think this teacher would be fine for a letter of recommendation. The teacher is being honest and saying that the letter will only reflect what she knows of the student, which is hard work and improvement (impressive work ethic by the way).
Selective universities are holistic and will look at the big picture. I wouldn’t stress so much on this issue.
If she has an extracurricular outside of school, consider having a letter from a person involved in that, who knows her well aside from academics. But check with the school.
MIT might not be the best fit for a student who struggled in high school math but pulled the grade up to an A. Her hard work and effort are impressive, but that might not really be a good fit at MIT. Agree with the posters who suggest finding a different reference, and maybe asking for more suggestions from teachers and counselors about where students like her have flourished at college in other years.
What an obnoxious teacher. Tons of people are quiet. My son’s physics teacher required everyonewho asked for a rec to fill out a form that provided info so that he could do a professional job. That said, a reference from a classroom teacher that talks about work ethic etc seems fine to me, and bringing a B- to an A is a big deal.
I think your daughter will have a hard time avoiding this teacher if applying to engineering school but your daughter should take opportunities to include optional additional references. I don’t see why she qualified the opportunity to write a letter about work ethic. Your daughter gave her something very definite to say. Personally, I would have said “in a heart beat”. Since I am a nice person, I would have said that I would need some input on other areas that recommenders usually write about, and asked you for it.
Naviance has a student brag sheet to help guidance counselor write informative reference letters. Use that as a guide and provide that info to the teachers.
Honest feedback is a good thing. The student is asking a favor, and the teacher responded with her honest assessment of what she was comfortable doing
Sounds like it’s going to be positive but bland. If you can do better, go with someone else.
My d19 said that her awesome Spanish teacher gave her class some advice: do not ask for more recommendations than you are going to use. Teachers know writing recommendations is part of the job, but it’s frustrating to write recommendations that aren’t used.
I would choose the two teachers who know your daughter the best and are enthusiastic about writing a letter, regardless of whether the subject matches the intended major or even what year your child had the teacher. Majors change, students may have continued a good working relationship with a teacher for a year or so after being in that teacher’s class, etc. Ad coms already can see whether a student is capable in a subject through grades and test scores, they are looking for other qualities in the letters.
I would say thanks but no thanks to that teacher. IMO, either the teacher didn’t bother to connect to your daughter (which then doesn’t lend itself to my trust that the letter will have effort put into it) or the teacher thinks that your daughter didn’t make the effort to connect (which means some negativity would come through in the letter).
I have two introvert daughters. They can and do connect very well with many teachers, but not with every teacher. IME with them, some extrovert teachers are used to connecting easily with students and don’t know how to connect with introverts.
@learning19 a supplemental letter of recommendation from a mentor at an internship can add a lot of value to an application. This is really worth pursuing. Ask the schools how to go about it. Believe me, in a situation like this, that can really make a difference.