My student attends a ranking school that is a top-100 school nationally. Nearly 1/10 of each graduating class is a National Merit Scholar. As a consequence of being at such a competitive school, my student is not inside the top-25%. At any other school in the local area and probably 90% of schools nationally, my student would land in the top-25%.
I was told that 50% of all applicants come from non-ranking schools and they have a proprietary method to assess rank. 95% of all applicants are from the top-25%, too. My student has SAT scores in the top-25% of all tOSU applicants.
That all said, because the school ranks, my student will not likely receive the National Buckeye, yet far less qualified students will.