I don’t find Rachel Toor’s book (I’ve read it) or the Harvard data to show compelling enough evidence that one can say schools are imputing class rank when reading apps (which is what I initially asked about).
I have heard AOs say they don’t impute rank if it’s not in the transcript, and although admissions practices at a given school can change dramatically, and quickly, (there’s a lot of turn over in admissions leadership) I think using class rank in the admissions process has decreased significantly in the last decade or two.
I’m not saying that there aren’t any colleges that impute rank, I just don’t think it’s common. And nothing in these last dozen posts suggests otherwise.
Lastly, no AO needs to input rank to compare students from the same, or any, HS.