<p>If admissions is based on just one number, of course, that is going to be unfair to students who do well in other areas, but I would assume that most admissions offices do more than look at just one number.</p>
<p>However, one should expect that a more selective college will have more students in the top N% of their class, whatever N is, so that makes this statistic a reasonable one to consider, along with others, of course.</p>