Does class rank matter for college admissions?

IIn Stanford's admissions office, readers who opened the stack of files from one high school often began by sorting it, by class rank when the school provided one and by GPA when it did not, so that the most academically qualified students were read first. Your rank, if your school reports it, shapes how a reader meets you.

Students rarely know theirs. The Common App no longer asks for it, and many schools prefer not to share it, for understandable reasons. Your counselor usually knows it and may report it to colleges on the school report, which means a number you have never seen can be shaping the first impression of your file. There are good reasons to want to know it.