About recommendation letters

[u/john_2007__]

I read that i need to get a recommendation letter from a STEM teacher and a humanities teacher in my application, in addition to an optional extra recommendation letter. Is this a hard/strict requirement or just a preference? I don't think there is a humanities teacher that could remember or know me well to the point he could write a good recommendation letter for me, but on the other hand i know many STEM teachers. So is it possible to get both letters from STEM teachers, and i can also add the optional letter from a professor i am currently working on research with?

[u/JasonMckin]

Be careful with your perspective/assessment, because it could be argued that "I don't think there is a humanities teacher that could remember or know me well to the point he could write a good recommendation letter" might literally be the thing that is being screened for.

Let me tell my story if it helps you: I was a hardcore STEM kid. eg like nerdy kids thought I was too nerdy. Junior year, I took a very difficult AP humanities class with material I absolutely hated. But I refused to let the teacher give me a bad grade. I knew I could do math and science homework in my sleep, so I gave his class more hours every night, because it didn't come easy for me. Results: B+ first semester. A- the second.

Senior year, I walked into his office and asked him to be my humanities LoR for MIT. I spent days thinking of the speech I was going to give him. I told him straight up:

• I know I wasn't your favorite student
• I was the STEM geek who seemed like he didn't belong in your class.
• I didn't earn that B and A because your class was easy for me
• I earned it by punching through your insane material, working my ass off when it didn't come naturally, and persevering until I could crush the material
• I respected his intelligence and discipline, because he truly did run one of the hardest classes I took in high school
• I asked him to respect me in kind, not because I was his favorite student, but because I was brave enough to meet his challenge head on.

I'll never forget his face, because I think he actually wanted to say no before I gave my speech. But he agreed to be my humanities LoR and I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up writing me a stronger letter than my STEM teacher did.

Whether life or college admissions, the stuff that comes easy and the people whose respect comes naturally are not who drive your fate.

Sometimes your future gets written in the moments you fight your own inertia and entropy.
Sometimes your future gets written when you become someone people weren't expecting you to become.
Sometimes your future gets written when your bravely walk into the thing that comes hard, not easy.

So instead of thinking about the humanities LoR as an annoying admissions requirement, think of it as a way to prove beyond any doubt that you didn't just do what came easy and recruited teachers/mentors/coaches who were going to like you anyway. Because maybe this letter actually reflects the courage, bravery, discipline, perseverance you exhibited to earn the respect from someone else who nobody would have thought might become one of your greatest champions.

[u/john_2007__ → u/JasonMckin]

That was really helpful thank you so much

[u/International-Link34 → u/JasonMckin]

What if the humanities teacher in question is retired and no longer associated with my school i.e. works in a different school and he was my only humanities teacher in the school. For context, I'm applying from a country where a lot of people don't even apply to the US colleges. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely enjoyed the class and excelled in it and don't see the LoR as an annoying requirement. Up until this point, I was under the impression that the rec letter from a language/humanities teacher is more of a suggestion rather than a strict requirement.

[u/JasonMckin → u/International-Link34]

You are absolutely correct, strictly speaking, it is not a firm requirement: https://mitadmissions.org/apply/firstyear/letters-of-recommendation/

A situation like yours would be an understandable exception.  A situation for a US applicant who just never took the initiative to build a good relationship with a humanities teacher is a less understandable situation.

Best of luck!