Class size getting smaller, Class Rank getting worse?

<p>At the moment, I don't have a particularly competitive class rank (Top 34 Percent, as of end of Semester 1--like 208 out of 609). In the beginning of Senior Year there were 642 students in my class of 2012 and now there are less. Apparently my school cuts off the bottom 35 or so students from class rank calculation if they don't meet school requirements by the end of their junior year (although they still are able to enter into Senior year, they just have to meet the criteria to graduate). I'm not sure if this is common practice at most high schools, but the method doesn't seem fair. If my school included them into the calculation I might have been in the top 30 percent, which seems more significant than my current rank. I'm only upset now because some of the colleges I am trying to be recruited from for Crew require an athlete to be within the top 30 percent of their class, and I just miss the mark. I just wanted to know if anyone on CC had any comments to make about this practice, is this common for high schools, is it something I should not on college apps?</p>