<p>MIT has sports teams, and so must admit “student-athletes” in each incoming class. MIT student-athletes might be expected to meet higher standards than those that are expected of student-athletes at other schools, but they still definitely benefit from their ability to contribute to the school’s athletic departments. There were two kids in my high school class this year, for instance, who were accepted into MIT, while several more-qualified applicants were rejected. The only area in which these two stood out in comparison to the other applicants was in athletics, as they both will play on sports teams at MIT next year. </p>
<p>MIT, like every other college, strives to enroll diverse classes. At some point in the admissions process, MIT will admit students with somewhat lesser credentials than those of the rest of the admitted class if it must do so to maintain diversity, and, to its credit, if it can do so without a large sacrifice in academic quality. </p>
<p>This happens at every university, and I see no reason as to why MIT would be different.</p>
<p>Edit: A 700/600/500, or a 600/700/500, would be very unusual; people usually perform similarly on the writing and reading sections. Also, even on the 1600 scale, a 1300 is rather low for MIT. I maintain that admission would be extremely unlikely in such a case, although a hook to an application could certainly compensate for such an SAT score.</p>