@parentologist @DadOfJerseyGirl @aunt_bea Thanks for your help, everyone!
But I still don’t get why work supervisors cannot replace teachers when it comes to recommendations. I know that colleges and universities usually request the recommendations to be written by teachers, but in essence, don’t they simply want a third-party evaluation of the student’s personality, skills, ethics, and motivations? It seems that supervisors can offer such evaluation as well. 
You might be able to add a very relevant supplementary rec, but college is academic, so they want recs from teachers of academic subjects, usually one STEM and one humanities.
Colleges want to know how you learn and perform in an academic classroom setting (which is the environment you will be in during college). Work supervisors cannot provide that information.
OK, now I get the picture. You’re an unschooled 16 yr old international student who wants to get into a tippy-top US college.
The only way that this might happen for you would be if you were to have had some truly extraordinary accomplishment on the international level, something that would have been newsworthy, in the international press.
But you are young, you have time on your side! You want college - great. Now you have to figure out the best way to get there.
You could possibly start in your own country, with some sort of high school diploma. You could get this by enrolling in high school for the next 2-3 years, or get an equivalency exam diploma, and enroll in your home country in a level of college there that requires no more than that. Or you could get that same equivalency diploma in your own country, somehow come here on whatever visa you can get, and then enroll in community college here, as a start. There are some community colleges which participate in a transfer program to some excellent private colleges. Look at https://transferscholars.org/.
You cannot get student loans in the US unless you are a US citizen or permanent resident green card holder, and even then, your parents have to be involved, to at least some degree.
With an equivalency diploma or a homemade unschooler transcript, plus a decent SAT or ACT, you might be able to get accepted to a non-selective 4 yr college, as a full pay student.
Honestly, if what you want is to earn a college diploma, your best bet right now at the age of 16 would probably be to enroll in high school, or to begin earning a high school diploma as a homeschooler with a standardized online curriculum, working your way through it as quickly as possible. You should also prepare to take the SAT or ACT, to earn a high score that confirms your academic achievement.
I know this all sounds harsh, but the reality is that applications to highly selective US colleges from an unschooled 16 year old international student are really just thrown out money. Better to focus on completing a high school education, and creating the academic record that you need that might get you into college, be it in the US or your home country.
Loans from where? As an international student, you aren’t eligible for U.S. federally funded loans. You would need guaranteed loans from your country…not hopeful ones…but ones that have been approved. You will need these if this money is what you need to demonstrate that you have FOUR years if money at the ready to complete your certificate of finances to get a student visa here.
This.
Not in the US there isn’t. I love your enthusiasm and ability to solve problems on the fly… but you need to do a deep dive into US immigration law, student visas, etc. before you get caught up in work recommendations and all that jazz. Once you have ascertained- with your parents- that you will be able to show sufficient funds for four years of study (nobody in the US is lending you money, so they will have to come from elsewhere) we can help you strategize about recommendations.
MIT isn’t interested in what your supervisors and colleagues have to say about you in an internship. They want to hear from a history teacher about your passion for learning from the past, (or a language teacher, or any other humanities teacher) and from your calculus teacher (or physics teacher) about your curiosity in figuring out how the world works.
Your ability to show up on time, be part of a work team, take feedback, take initiative- all terrific. But colleges are academic institutions, not training programs for corporate life.
Well it’s time and money to apply. The applications aren’t necessarily free, so depends on your definition of hurt. You are also almost 99.9999% sure to not get in, so if rejections hurt too, that’s a consideration.
If you’ve cured cancer and won some big international awards that might, MIGHT, help you, but otherwise from what you have written here these schools are worse than a long shot for you. They would also be a big fat no for an American with your record.
However we have a ton of schools in this country who would be willing to work with you as long as your family can pay.
I worked in a high school for over 8 years. Over time, I’ve learned how the teachers can sense which students will perform well in an academic task, set in a collaborative group, to foster more learning.
They can tell who will be ready for a fast-paced competitive environment that are the colleges and universities.
What you don’t seem to get is that students, in a classroom or home school setting, with delineated lesson plans, have learned to function and cope when a new, difficult academic concept is introduced. They know whose note cards are being shared. They know which students will work in teams and sometimes, a teacher purposely combines extreme personalities in teams to see how each team will compensate with differing academic levels for a shared grade.
The students sit for long hours everyday trying to master beginning concepts that they will need to study further at their universities.
A teacher can tell when a student is having difficulty with a concept and how the student compensates and arrives at a conclusion with help.
A teacher can tell when an athlete has had a tough tournament the night before a big test and how that athlete will perform on a compare and contrast Shakespearean assignment.
A teacher knows how a student will perform in a laboratory science.
Work supervisors are not your teachers:
They typically have not taught you to use universal precautions in a lab, while conducting blood typing.
They have not asked you to choose a side in a debate between the Capulets’ and Montagues’ with essay supports.
They have not taught you the “imperfect verbs” in Spanish and how they are used.
They have not asked you to produce a Haiku using only intransitive verbs.
They have not asked you to calculate and create a vehicle with 5 team members, that will float and support a student to travel across a pool, using the lightest materials available.
The colleges and universities, in the US, want the best students for their schools, as described by their public, private and homeschool teachers who are teaching DAILY, 5 sections of students; showing learning potential in their classrooms.
If our students had done what you did, our colleges and universities would not be described as some of the best universities in the world.
Don’t you think our schools should require the most academically, well-prepared, gifted and well-disciplined students? The students are the ones who have developed and built up the reputation of our US schools.
Otherwise, you wouldn’t even be on this website if it weren’t for the fact that you are desperate to attend these schools that you are woefully unprepared, academically, to attend.
EDITED to ADD:
As for your “working for a month”, and requesting a LOR from a supervisor, we have had HS students who have been working, on a daily basis for years, at their Fast food restaurants, Starbucks, Target merchants, churches, hospital offices, camps, amusement parks, shoveling snow, etc. after school and/or during their summers to earn monies for their high school and college expenses. Working for a month wont go far for your “experience” in any decent amount of information in an LOR.
Your best bet is to begin a high school program that will “academically” prepare you for future studies.
You might want to read this thread to temper your expectations:
There are many wonderful colleges in the US that would welcome a homeschooled/unschooled international student who can show some qualifications like a SAT or ACT score. The schools you listed are just super selective about who they accept. You need more than a letter of recommendation. If you want to tell us more about what you want to study and how much your family can afford we can make some suggestions for other schools that might work for you.
Thank you, everyone, for tempering my expectations.
But I’m still going to apply. Even if I do not get into any schools, I will (and already have) gain a lot from the application process.
Thanks again;)
Did you take an SAT or an ACT? I don’t see how paying whatever the app fee is for submitting applications to these schools, which are 100% sure to reject you, gains you anything.
Why do you want to go to these schools? You’ve never sat in a classroom. Why do you think that attending one of these schools is going to be what you want?
If you really do want to go to college in the US, and if your family has a few hundred thousand dollars to pay for it, then I suggest that you mock up a transcript, take a standardized test, and apply to a few good but non-selective colleges (there are a number of schools that might take you, if you can pay). But submitting applications to these extraordinarily selective schools is just thrown out money.
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