How important is rank?

subzero
Sun, 03 Apr 2011 16:55:20 +0000

I am currently a junior and rank 5/495 in my high school. I can tell that with enough effort on my part, I have the potential to go up, perhaps even rank 1 by the end of this school year (8 weeks left).
This would mean working my ass off and scrounging for extra credit and higher grades in every class. I’m just wondering if colleges would give importance to small rank differences (1-5). Otherwise, I’d rather focus on sports and extracurriculars, and study for my AP tests.