<p>MIT admissions does not use some arbitrary cutoff for GPA as some State schools may utilize. They will deconstruct the transcript to understand what courses were taken, how difficult they were and how well you did in them. Obviously if you have a lot of Bs in math and science it will be more of a concern than in languages or history. Thay also look at context: was your curriculum challenging enough based on what was offered at your high school. The adcoms know most high schools very well, especially if they have had applicants in the past from the school. If they get several applicants from the same school , MIT will generally seek to establish some form of ranking. That does not mean the one with the higher GPA automatically gets an edge. A lower ranked student may have done some outstanding research which may compensate for slightly lower grades. Personal characteristics also play a big role. They ask ECs who perform the applicant interviews to score the applicants on various characteristics and rank them if they can. </p>
<p>While it is hard to generalize, a more “angular” student with some oustanding features (and possibly some slight weaknesses) will have higher chances than the strong all-around student without distinction. The former can easier be ‘sold’ to the admissions committee when decision time comes around and may also be as a better fit for the MIT culture.</p>