Bar for admission and bar for success are very different things. MIT admits ~1100 students a year, but far more than 1100 globally have the drive and ability to

Bar for admission and bar for success are very different things. MIT admits ~1100 students a year, but far more than 1100 globally have the drive and ability to succeed in the program. So they have to set some criteria. If the filter is arbitrarily "must have a 1580 SAT score to get in" and the applicant has 1560 instead, that doesn't mean they are doomed to fail.