According to their 2015-16 CDS, MIT labels Class Rank as “considered” while labeling all other academic metrics as “important”. Does this mean that students with a rank between 10% and 15% also have a realistic chance given that they have very good SAT scores, GPA etc ? However, the CDS also says that 98% of students admitted had a rank which was lower than 10%. Is it reasonable to conclude that such students (ranked between 10% and 15%) have close to zero chance of getting into MIT.
P.S. The above phenomena is exceptionally common at competitive high schools.
The short answer is “it depends.” Certainly a student in the 10-15% range will have a better shot if s/he attends Andover/Exeter/TJHSST vs. East Dubuque High. The flip side is that at those top HS’s, there are also probably a lot of applicants applying with higher rank.
At the end of the day, MIT practices holistic admissions, so while rank is a part of the process, it is only one part. That applicant will need to have a stellar application package overall.
I’m with @skieurope , from what I’ve heard and experienced, class rank and other various scholastic numbers are viewed as more of a check mark for students to get their foot in the door, and thus make a bigger impression