I’ve seen that most Ivy League students were in the top 10% during high school.
Here’s my problem:
My class has only 18 students and I’m in second place (top 11.1%).
I know class rank is not the most important thing… but in which way this affect my chances?
Since your class size is so small, it all depends on your ECs.
Actually, the best thing for you to do is get a 34+ ACT/~1540+ SAT. Plus, have really good EC’s. The truth is, even if you were number 1 in your class the rate of acceptance would be very small for the top 20 schools, it is for everyone.
If you look at the common data set for each school, there is a box where the college checks if they consider class rank. Harvard, for example, has selected “No”. It varies from school to school.
Rank is irrelevant. Stop worrying about it. No, it does not all “depend on your ECs”. No, it is not the case that “the best thing you could do is get a 34+…”. What sources are people using? My goodness.
You went to a very small school. Class rank is irrelevant. Consider if a graduating class had 6 students but included Einstein, Beethoven and Isaac Newton. Would a college reject 2 of them them because they were not in the top 10% of their graduating class? Of course not. Common sense prevails.
You have not provided enough information about your school to allow me to speculate more specifically. Your school may use narratives or be well known to the colleges due to offering very specialized instruction. If so, then what follows may not be accurate but it probably is accurate if your school is a typical private school that happens to simply be very small.
Your school will send a “School Profile” with your transcript to every college you apply to. That profile will explain things like the size of the class, the courses taken, the grading system etc. The admissions counselors will interpret your accomplishments, grades and scores in light of the information they have about your school. Because you school is so small, your teacher letters and guidance counselor (GC) letter will probably provide rich descriptions of your school and how you fit into your school. Adults in your school probably know you better than teachers and GCs in large schools know their students. Do not worry that you need to compensate in some way for the size of your school (as suggested by the previous posts). That is not true. Your information will be judged in light of the school you attended and the resources available to you.
@lostaccount TS is an international… and I don’t see how I implied the TS had to make up for their small class size with a higher test score. Literally all I said was that they would be best off getting a high SAT/ACT and having great EC’s for the top schools, while reiterating that many valedictorians and people with perfect GPA’s get rejected from these schools.
@lostaccount Hi. Sorry for resurrecting an old topic 
I am an international student. My high school was ranked as the best high school in my city for more than four consecutive years, based on Brazilian High School National Exam.
What will impact things more than your class rank is being an international student. Class rank is still important but since many private high schools do not release class rank it has become less important. The admissions officer would normally have your school profile in one hand and your transcript in the other when they review your admissions file. I don’t know if Brazilian high schools provide a school profile
@Wje9164be They provide