<p>Academic star is a designation of the MIT admission’s office given to applicants with specific academic achievements. My understanding is that it is reserved for applicants who have won special awards or placed in highly selected competitions: Intel and Siemens semi-finalists and above, USAMO qualifiers and above, science olympiad medalists. State, school and local awards do not count as that would probably cover all qualified applicants. </p>
<p>I am not aware that MIT gives the academic star designation to applicants with superior credentials in terms of classes taken or even research accomplishements: that group would probably be too large and the designation may lose its meaning. By definition the star system involves a well-recognized academic award which needs to be rare and highly selective to be counted. There are at most 500 USAMO qualifers while there are potentially ten of thousands of students having taken advanced college math classes while in high school. </p>
<p>Probably well over half of academic star candidates are rejected so it is no guarantee of admission, just a higher chance of admission than candidates who are not academic stars. I have interviewed many successful candidates but none so far were classified as academic stars, even though their qualifications were excellent. </p>
<p>A superstar is not an offical MIT designation but would be Intel winners and IMO medalists and the like which are actively recruited by MIT through emails and letters. While not auto-admit candidates they would probably be offered admission unless there was a major flaw in the application.</p>