Weighting is so different at every school, and so is class rank. You can have a student with a much easier load coming in at number 1 rank wise at some schools. Another school would have the harder schedule student at first. At our school, honors and AP have equal rank.
Student 1:
9th: Honors Algebra. A 5 points
10th: Honors Geo. A 5 points
11th Honors Algebra 2 A 5 points
12th Honors Trig/ Precalc A 5 points
Student 2:
9th: Honors Algebra 2. A 5 points
10th Honors Trig/Precalc A 5 points
11th AP Calc BC B 4 points
12th. AP Stastics. A 5 points
All things being equal at our school, student 1 would definitely have higher standing in class rank due to higher GPA. Student A has higher both weighted and unrated. I would assume that most colleges would NOT rank these two students the same. Actual numbers mean very little without the transcript.
There are a lot of students at the top of the class rankings in my son’s school who have 0 AP classes. My son, and many others have 11 or 12 AP classes by graduation and may have a B or two or even a C on some of the really hard ones like AP Calc BC or AP Physics. I haven’t seen this hurt anyone in college admissions, and the kids with the rigorous schedules seem to do fine.