Actually @lostaccount to my mind handling failure is less about some continuum of maturity and more about the STEM-focused nature of many of MIT’s applicants. When any kid is in a high school science class, they almost never do any laboratory experiment that doesn’t work. Heck, the labs they choose to teach in HS science classes are chosen specifically because they reliably work. When you get to do real experimental laboratory science, the overwhelming majority of the experiments that you will do, will not work. The same holds true in Engineering. Think of Edison’s famous remark while working on the incandescent bulb, that he hadn’t failed, he had discovered 10000 ways that won’t work. Given that, resilience in the face of failure is not merely a “nice to have” feature, it is all but required for budding scientists or engineers.