<p>Hi, I go to a school with a very large student body (600+ students per year). This means that even if my ranking is as low as number 30, I’d still be in the top 5% of the class. Now, my question is that is it more impressive to be in the top 5% for a class with a small amount of people or a large amount of people?</p>
<p>It is probably MORE impressive if it is a larger student body, because there is more competition, but both are impressive.</p>
<p>It’s basically the same. </p>
<p>At a larger school, there is more competition. However, the proportion of smart kids to dumb kids likely isn’t different than a different-sized school.
At a smaller school, there is less competition. But, one small setback has a big impact. Getting a B+ once could knock you back just two or three spots, which could put a student previously in the top 5% out of the top 20%. </p>
<p>So really it all evens out… Which is really the point of percentiles.</p>