<p>Or is it both?</p>
<p>I think rank matters more.</p>
<p>Your grade point average, within the context of YOUR school, and the rigor of the curriculum in which your earned those grades means much more to most colleges than class rank. For one thing, virually all high schools record grades. Fewer than half of American high schools rank their students these days.</p>
<p>^^great answer HV…the “within the context of your school” could mean with or without rank imo so it really brings it home…</p>
<p>If you have a rank, colleges usually don’t have to figure out where you stand in the “context of your school”</p>
<p>If you don’t have a rank, and as mentioned “fewer than half of American HS’s rankd these days”, the colleges will figure out where you stand…</p>
<p>Personal anecdote: great class rank does not trump grade deflation…</p>
<p>It depends on the school to which you apply. Look at its common data set in Section C7 to see what factors are most highly rated. Generally rigor is most important (most often rated very important), with GPA coming second in how often it is rated as very important.</p>