WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

make it
    v 1: continue in existence after (an adversity, etc.); "He
         survived the cancer against all odds" [syn: survive,
         pull through, pull round, come through, make it]
         [ant: succumb, yield]
    2: succeed in a big way; get to the top; "After he published his
       book, he had arrived"; "I don't know whether I can make it in
       science!"; "You will go far, my boy!" [syn: arrive, make
       it, get in, go far]
    3: go successfully through a test or a selection process; "She
       passed the new Jersey Bar Exam and can practice law now"
       [syn: pass, make it] [ant: bomb, fail, flunk,
       flush it]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

87 Moby Thesaurus words for "make it":
   accomplish, achieve, achieve success, advance, approach, arrive,
   arrive at, arrive in, attain, attain to, be a success, be able,
   be received, be up to, blow in, bob up, break through, can, can do,
   check in, clear, clear the hurdle, clock in, come, come along,
   come in, come on, come through, come to, come to hand, contrive,
   cut a swath, cut it, cut the mustard, engineer, fetch, fetch up at,
   find, gain, get ahead, get along, get by, get in, get on,
   get there, get to, go far, go on, go places, hack it, have it made,
   hit, hit town, make, make a breakthrough, make a success,
   make good, make headway, make out, make the grade, make the scene,
   manage, manage somehow, may, muddle through, negotiate, pop up,
   possess authority, progress, pull in, punch in, put over,
   put through, reach, ring in, rise, roll in, scrape along, show up,
   sign in, succeed in, swing, swing the deal, take charge, time in,
   turn up, worry along