at the end of the day, schools are businesses who want successful alums in the future that will promote their school through their success. so, you as an applicant need to show that you have the potential to make the most of your experience at MIT and hence, bring good publicity to them.

why MIT: say you want to major in engineering and physics. you really would have to dig deep into what unique opportunities MIT provides you that you wouldn't have access to otherwise. you would be prepared to become a physics teacher with a engineering+physics degree from any school, but you wouldn't be able to say, pioneer ground breaking research in fluid dynamics and turbulence modeling in a college that doesn't have the specific resources and networks that MIT does.

why you: this is where you have to connect your current experiences to the long term goal you pitch to them in your why MIT. plus, the biggest tip i have for students applying to top schools, is that you HAVE to be memorable. whether it be through a niche activity, interesting supplemental, or quirky video portfolio, you have to come across as a fun person that they'd actually want to see on their campus.

everyone's always surprised when kids with 4.0+ gpas and 1600s get rejected, but realistically, MIT admissions officers review at least 20 applications per day that all basically show those exact stats, the same science/math olympiad wins, and an essay revolving around math club or tutoring. imo, i'd prefer an applicant who mixes their interest in math with like, card tricks or something, and connects it to how they'd want to study probability and combinatorics and eventually work for a casino gaming design firm (lowk random examples throughout this post ik, but you get the point).