I was on this once upon a time. It never moved for me (as you might infer ;) ). I didn't find out until April 10th, despite them saying quite a few times it would be earlier (i.e., couple of weeks, then by the end of march, then first week of April, etc...). I don't blame them though, that's just how it went, and I suppose they were trying to be positive for me by giving the earliest feasible dates each time I checked up on that.
The funding was going to be only for years 3-5. This implied a 150K debt, give or take, for the first two years. Unless your family is very well off...no one recommended it, not MIT, not anyone else. Which is to say: MIT said I shouldn't come if they couldn't fund me (given my other offers, which weren't even as good as yours) -- it's not worth it.
Apparently my year there were only 9 funded offers. I cannot verify this, but the source is relatively trustworthy. So the competition for those is going to be fierce, and the reason that MIT sometimes overturns admissions decisions for NSF winners -- they really try to get as many as they can externally funded.
I was ranked, within my field. I was the '2nd in line' for microeconomics funding. At April 10 I was told that #1 in line MIGHT get funding, so, I should act as if I wasn't going to. I know that people who visited and were on the waitlist also didn't get off (very good applicants at that). I didn't visit. I don't really regret it, though I guess it can't hurt to get face time. No idea whether getting people to write on your behalf etc. will help. Odds are everyone does that and at a certain point they just have to start ignoring it.
It was a pretty heartbreaking experience. But the faculty and students there were great throughout the whole experience (though I was always so nervous talking to Glenn Ellison...). I have nothing but good things to say about them, and I hope they don't mind me divulging this information. If so...too late ;)