But you have had a definitive answer, many, many times. I am an international educational counselor (interviewer) and indeed the regional chair of my international region. I have personally interviewed many successful applicants who were not academic stars, and as the regional chair, I get to see very summarised data on all of the successful applicants from my region. I can assure you that the majority of international admits from my region are NOT academic medalists. I have tried to answer your question clearly. But my opinion is apparently not definitive.
Chris Peterson (@MITChris) is an MIT admissions officer. He sees the applicant pool as a pool and knows precisely what is necessary to get in. He has also tried to answer fairly clearly in post 8, but again.his opinion is apparently not definitive.
Look, being an academic star really helps. Obviously enough, MIT does not get many applicants from IMO gold medalists, and if you have such a thing, then that is hugely beneficial to your application. I can assure you though that although it helps, two things are true. One is that having such an international medal alone is not enough to get you in. We do occasionally get medalists who do not get in, and we did have an IOI medalist a couple of years back who got in off the waiting list. When I write something like that, I inevitably get distraught applicants reading this who feel “Augh, I have an international medal and even that isn’t enough.” It has been said here many, many times that there is absolutely no silver bullet that absolutely gets you in. The way to look at it is that because of the “no silver bullet” rule, there are even more spaces for folks who match well to MIT but do not have any such distinctions. I meet international admitted students in this category, every single year.