Some background info is that I’m a high school student and I don’t really have time or circumstances to be doing competition math. My question is even if you want to major in math is it a requirement to do math contests? I don’t feel like it is, but it does give a boost to your college admission, but doesn’t differentiate you from most MIT or Caltech applicants. I honestly don’t enjoy problem solving, I like understanding on a theoretical level and holding my time on elegant proofs. Well do they or no?
No, it’s not a requirement at all. Do what you love and enjoy, not because everyone else does it. You can demonstrate your love of and competence in math in other ways.
They are looking for something that shows how capable you are above and beyond good grades. Contests are one way, there are others like research or, you know, building a nuclear reactor in your garage.
LOL there is an MIT blog that specifically mentions an applicant who built a functioning nuclear reactor & didn’t get in…
https://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways/
Thank you a lot for the responses, I was a bit concerned whether or not contests were a geberal requirement for STEM majors.
I don’t know about geberal requirements (or maybe its gerbil requirements 
) but winning math contests is always going to help as would winning any major type of competition.
Dont need to win contests. Rarely a tip. Just a nice thing, less important than many other things.
Do need to read the MIT blogs and everything else or you wont know.
MIT does recruit Math Olympiads and has an admissions officer that focuses on high talent math candidates. Not every math olympiad gets into MIT, but most do. Remember there are only 15-20 students in the country with that level of math talent. Of course, MIT scrutinizes these students, along with Harvard, CMU and other top math colleges.
MIT does look at National math exam scores and many students list those scores. Also, high scoring female applicants used to have a program that invited them to MIT, not sure if thats in place anymore, but there are lots of ways to go to MIT in a summer, and that may help too. RSI is the most difficult program to get into, over the summer, but there are many others. MIT even offers a humanities contest for high school students, I know a student at Brown who was flown to MIT as she submitted a winning essay to the humanities contest. MIT is a school that looks for very high talent in many areas, including social sciences, athletics, debate, science, engineering, mathematics, music, and art. These are called “hooks”.
Its very hard to get into MIT, 97% of students are rejected if they are male. A bit less than that are reject if they are female. So yes, any type of talent will help get in. Its a very small school, with very few seats for freshman.