The vast majority of admits to HYPSM… type colleges do not submit class rank, so I suspect your top 10% stats only reflect the minority of entering freshmen who submitted rank. For example, Princeton’s CDS indicates 29% submitted rank, Yale’s CDS indicates 30% submitted rank, Stanford’s CDS indicates 35% submitted rank, Harvard’s says they do not consider rank in their admission process. At privates with a few steps down in selectivity, most students also do not submit rank, but it is not as extreme as the examples above. The large portion who do not submit rank fits with an increasing portion of high schools not ranking or making rank optional, particularly ones with a large portion of students who have GPAs like the one described by the OP, so the rank tends to hurt students more than it helps. I realize TX public colleges are an exception, and ranking can be critical for admission to such colleges.