If there are 100 students in a class, and Steve is a competitive West Point applicant, Steve is probably in the top 20% of his class. Lets say Steve is ranked number 15. 20% of the class scored a 36 on the ACT, the other 80% scored below a 18; so only 20% of the class is going to a 4 year college, and the average ACT score is in the teens. But Steve is rank 15 in his class, which means that the only people he is behind are people who scored a 36 on the ACT. At most school's, Steve would be number 1, since he scored a 36 on the ACT. Steve's school isn't deemed competitive since only 20% of the students are going to college. Steve does not receive any bonus points for his class rank despite the fact that he is above 5 people who scored a 36 on the ACT.
Bob goes to another school. The school also has 100 students. Bob is rank number 15 in his school. 80% of the students at Bob's school scored between a 22 and a 27 on the ACT. The other 20% score a 28 or above. 99% of the students at Bob's school go to a 4 year college. Bob scores a 28 on the ACT, which is 15th best in his class. Since Bob's school has so many people going to college, Bob receives bonus points in his class rank.
Which school was it harder to be rank 15 at? Steve's, to be rank 15 he needed a 36 on the ACT.
Which person deserved bonus points for his class rank more? Steve
Which person's school would be deemed more competitive if the metric used is % of students going to a 4 year college? Bob's
Which person receives the bonus points?
Bob
Basically, looking at the % of students going to 4 year colleges to determine if a school's candidate(s) gets bonus points for their class rank hurts candidates that go to top heavy schools(Steve's school) and helps candidates that go to balanced schools(Bob's school).
That probably wasn't the best analogy since class rank isn't determined by ACT scores, but a person with a high ACT score will also likely have a high GPA which does determine class rank. The reason I chose to use ACT scores in the analogy instead if GPA is because GPA is not standerdized while the ACT is.