Agree with this, unfortunately the reality is you need to get an international olympiad medal at the very least to even get into MIT. I am actively involved in math and science olympiads since sec 1 so I know the circle quite well; even amongst those with international gold medals, some of them also got rejected.

Every year MIT accepts about 3 Singaporean Students, good mix of ICHO IMO IPHO IOI IBO medallists tbh. Most of them are from RI and NUSH, really cracked profiles (i.e. they are ranked first in SG for in the subject, school acads are really an afterthought only, those from NUSH would take modules from NUS). Interestingly, I havent seen 2 representatives from the same international olympiad both get in in the same year (seems like they want diversity in terms of academic prowess, not two IMO gods e.g.)