I'm very confused by why LurkerKing is getting so much flack. If you look at the MIT decision thread from last year on college confidential you'll see person after person after person with 34-36 ACT, 10+ APs with mostly 5s, top 5% in class and solid extracurricular activities getting rejected. The middle 50% for MIT on the math section of the ACT is a 34-36, that's a ridiculous number(it means that at least 25% of the class, probably even more than that, scored a 36). The average ACT at USMA is a 28(which is respectable but not an absolutely ridiculous figure like MIT has). How often do you people on here that were 3Q'd, scored a 35 ACT, top 5% of their class, and solid extracurriculars get rejected? The only case for USMA being harder to get in to I could see one making is that you have to be medically and physically qualified for USMA. Is there something I'm missing?
LurkerKing also made what I think is a very valid point. You can find people who got into service academies with 25s on the ACT. If you look through the all of the MIT decision threads on MIT from the last 5 years I would bet that you would not find one person with a 25 on their ACT(and not a higher SAT score).
Based on the decision thread, MIT is a crapshoot for basically everyone. The same cannot be said for USMA. Based on what I have seen on this forum, if you score a 34 ACT, you're top 1% of your class, you have solid extracurricular, and you are 3Q'd, USMA is no longer a crapshoot.