<p>I second what shrig94 said. Sure, good scores and rank won’t hurt you, but those are not the most important things. I am not valedictorian (in fact, I’m not even sure that I’m in the top 10%) but I got in. Instead of focusing on perfecting my GPA, I did extracurriculars that I cared about and that showcased my skills. MIT looks for people who do things, not just study, and as long as you find some things to be passionate about which keeping your grades at an acceptable level, you have a shot. That being said, admissions is a crapshoot for people with perfect scores and for people with the perfect personality match to MIT, perfect extracurriculars, etc.</p>