I’m curious how other #30 universities are able to come up with that number as I suspect the population is homogeneous and just as many applicants at those schools come from High Schools that don’t report class rank. There has to be some method. To just say, no to the system doesn’t seem to be the right approach. Although to make up a number based on estimates also seems a system that could be highly biased in favor of the institution.
Our school doesn’t publish rank but, if the student asks the guidance counselor what their rank was/is for college or scholarship applications it is provided. I don’t know if it is ever officially supplied to the university by the school, but the students put it on their applications.
I’m not one to get rid of rankings. Without some way of reviewing the performance of the population, things like prestige end up how people rank schools. That often leads to complacency for those schools that have the prestige and other ways to get students for those who aren’t as prestigious. Now, maybe the rankings system should change, but with out a way to keep score it does take a certain level of transparency away from which schools are doing better. Additionally, as imperfect as USNWR is, the method that we’d come up with to do the ranking, would be much more flawed.