I agree with you to a certain extent, but I don't think the class rank system is completely fair. I have gotten 2 B's in my entire high school career(everything else is A's), I've taken 3 AP classes and 6 honors classes, my GPA is 3.85 unweighted and 4.3 weighted yet my class rank is only 66/426, which as you probably know, is below average by service academy standards. My class rank isn't "mediocre" because I haven't worked as hard as my peers and I'm not as smart as them, but because there are A LOT of really smart people at my school. Last year, 25%, yes 25%, of our seniors scored a 30 or above on the ACT. I don't know if you understand how amazing that is, but it's really, really amazing. 25%. Last semester I got all A's(my school works on an 18 week course system) yet my class rank actually got worse, by two spots. That in my opinion is completely ridiculous. I did as well as I possibly could have done, and my class rank went down. I've basically gotten to a point where no matter how well I do, no matter how hard I work, I can't improve, and that in my opinion is wrong.
Sorry if it looked like I was ranting, wasn't my intention. I wasn't trying to insult your opinion either, just stating my point of view. And I don't want to sound arrogant or anything, but I honestly believe if I went to an average high school, educational wise, I would live up to the service academy's standards when it comes to class rank. But I don't, and I can play the if game as much as I want and it won't change anything. My class rank is going to be below par, and there's nothing I can do to change it. Which as I said earlier, is wrong in my opinion.