text: You have asked the right person as I applied to MIT my last year of high school. In terms of college(undergraduate university) admissions, I agree with you, getting into American universites especially the elite ones can be extremely complicated, and tough to get into. I guess since you are from India, you understand the meaning of competition especially into the Indian Institutes of Technology where thousands upon thousands take an entrance exam and of the thousands that take the exam, only an elite few get scores high enough to attend the IIT. The entrance exam at IIT is the main factor determining who gets in and who doesn't.\n Well, getting into MIT for undergraduate admissions is just as competitive albeit not as so for the IIT. But, in the United States, the admissions committee,( a group of anywhere from 16 to 20) decide who gets in and who doesn't. But MIT does not have an entrance exam like the IITs, instead, they look at "the entire applicant". In other words, the admissions committee at MIT look at the following\n1)GRADES\n2)General SAT scores\n3)Subject Test SAT Scores\n4)the APPLICATION\n5) Letters of recommendation from teachers and the high school guidance counselor\n6) THE APPLICANT'S ESSAY\n7) EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES\n\nUnlike India, where students who perform the best on the entrance exam to the IIT attend, at MIT high scores are NOT A GUARANTEE OF ADMISSION. The SAT is a synomym for the Scholatic Aptitude Test, which is used by colleges and universities throughout the United States to assess the ability of students compared to others. The United States is  not like other highly developed countries where ALL schools cover the same material. School districts for the most part are their own feifdoms, so a standardized test is required to assess the meaning of grades. The general SAT tests students on three areas: Verbal, Quantative, and now Writing. It is now graded on a scale up to 2400, very few people ever score upwards of 2400. Anyway, since MIT is one of the elite schools in the United States, high SAT are essentially required. MIT requires three subject tests: One in Math, another in Science, and another in whatever the applicant wants to take. Generally, MIT requires an SAT score of 670 or higher to be competitive out of a possible score of 800.  Also, the student needs to be active in their high school. That means they have to be class president, win major science competitions, win math competitions, etc. What teachers think of the applicant are very important to the admissions committee. Also, if there is anything unknown the teachers about the student is expected that the high school guidance counselor will speak about the possible hardships of the student and things not mentioned elsewhere in the student's application. The high school guidance counselor also provides useful information to colleges and universities in regard to how competitive the student in relation to other students,i.e. class rank( if the school ranks students). Class rank is a ranking of students on the basis of GPA.  HIGH GRADES, HIGH SATs, STRONG LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATIONS, will work in the applicants favor, but ultimately it is a committee of 16-20 people on MIT's undergraduate committee that decides who in the applicant pool are the best applicants. In the United States, top students generally believe that applying to MIT is essentially a roll of the dice(those with GOOD LUCK GET IN). So many people that apply are highly qualified but MIT cannot accept everyone that applies. The competition is even more fierce for international students as MIT caps the accepted at 8% of the total student body.\n\n****Although, there are those who got rejected from the Indian Institutes of Technology and ended up at MIT.******\n\nSo, I hope I have helped. If you have any questions, just ask me the question on any open questions I may have.\n\nGRADUATE SCHOOL\nFor graduate school it is much simpler depending on w