@rdeng2614 I’m truly sorry about your friend. That’s such a harsh way to go. 
My condolences to his family and you.
The bell curve you speak of would’ve definitely enlightened me of what the atmosphere there is like, but from what it seems, those policies aren’t at MiT like you thought. I’ll have to look a little more into it, but since MITer94 is speaking from experience, it seems like that’s not the case. I still have to think about how I would perform there though. I don’t come from a particularly demanding background, at least compared to my cognitive bias of what people at MiT have had (at least 6 APs with tons of everything).
By the way, I’m 1806 right now, but I perform better than my rating. I’ve choked a few times at tournaments, which brought me down from around 1950 to where I am now.
@1golfer1 I actually talked about that in my application to Cornell Summer College, though I only briefly mentioned it. Most of the essay was about how I have an urge to want to understand things, but I have a limited toolset (algebra ii and trig), and so I need to learn Calculus and I’m willing to learn it myself, but I want the university experience too. I didn’t want to sound arrogant, so I only brought it up a little bit… I’m not sure how to bring it up without that pestering tone, but I’ll have to figure it out. The chess thing is especially nice because it comes with a story about my competitive nature, and that a single snarky comment led me to get to where I am in a summer.
And thanks for the advice. I’m planning to study for the Math II and Physics/Chem/Bio (not sure which one yet) subject tests over summer. I think I have a good shot at an 800 in Math, but I haven’t tried the sciences yet.
And those statistics are… daunting to say the least. This is pure speculation, but I could definitely see it as being the result of what ItsJustSchool said. The image people paint of themselves leave them feeling hopeless when they don’t reach such difficult goals. I don’t know, I think I’ve always been fairly… measured, I suppose. I don’t want goals, like nobel prizes, that only present a challenge to you based on other people’s perception of what you’ve done is like. I just want answers, and that’s why I would be willing to put myself in that kind of an environment.
Thanks to everyone for your input! 