| Haha, Sheed, curves at MIT are usually seen as a good thing -- curves are only supposed to be used to help students, not hurt them. For example, a curve generally wouldn't be used if an exam had a class average of 95%; students would just be straight-scored on such an exam. Curves are generally only used when class averages are low -- you wouldn't want to get a score of 40% on a test and not have it be curved.
For the OP, MIT is generally not competitive in that students help each other on homework and in studying for tests. | 
College Confidential is dedicated to providing the best free college admissions information available on the Web, through our many articles and this discussion forum.
