Urgent Recommendation Advice Needed

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

Hi everyone!

So before break I asked my junior year math teacher via email if I she could submit a recommendation letter to MIT application (she had written one earlier for my CA). However, she did not reply to my email until today, asking if she should submit it. During the time that she did not reply to me, I asked my biology teacher if she could submit her recommendation to my MIT application and she did yesterday. Now, my only option is to send my math teacher’s recommendation as an optional recommendation.

The other issue is that I have a Summer School professor in whose class I got a high grade, and I also have to send this recommendation as an optional one because his class encompassed what I want to major in. However, he said that his rec would be short, so I’m not too sure if it’ll add much value, whereas my math teacher knows me super well and in a different context than my bio teacher.

Which recs should I or should I not send? This is quite complex!

2

So, generally, MIT recommends that you don’t send a 3rd teacher rec because they say that they often add little to nothing to the application that isn’t already known. A short rec doesn’t necessarily mean a non-useful one. I would think about the characteristics that you exemplified around each person. If you think that the the math teachers likely topics will be largely overlapping the topics of your other recs, than the math rec is probably less helpful. The summer school rec may be inherently more useful due to the different context. However, I would submit the one that you think will communicate the most new information about you. So, for example, if your math teacher was also your quiz bowl coach, and you are influential in that group, then it might be a good idea to submit the math rec anyway. It’s up to your best judgement in the end.
Best