Bad Teacher Reference

My stats and stuff are good (4 a star, 9 9s).
But, in my reference, my maths teacher said I rank into the top 30% of the cohort. My cohort only gets about 20-25% a star on avg.
Im applying for econ at Oxford (EnM), Warwick, UCL, Imperial and LSE Management.
Will this reference and terrible ranking disadvantage me, and to what extent, as Im sure the other applicants will at least have a top 10% or something like that.
I feel like my chances just dropped drastically... Any opinions are greatly appreciated

As above - it doesnt actually stand up to much scrutiny. If everyone at your school gets A* grades then your position would be very different from one where most get lower grades - which doesn't tell any Uni anything useful about you. Looks like a teacher trying to be 'clever' to me - and most University staff will have the common-sense to just ignore it. Worry about something else.

Doesn't that depend on your school?
Top 10% in a comp is not the same as top 10% in a selective school.
UCAS refs don't normally include such phrases - I've written hundreds - most schools also keep contents confidential.

We get shown our reference, it said i was in top 30% despite joining late…
Simply, do you think this could be a reason that culminates towards a possible rejection, so does this really hold me back. Or am I just missing out on the potential benefit of having a top 5 or top 3. I hope I worded that in a way that makes it easy to understand

What sort of school is it? Yes I know you said 30% but I was making the point as it's totally useless information to a universtiy.
No way would I be writing a comment like that nor would any teacher in the three schools I've taught in.
I would ask why it's relevant!

Its a gramma rschool, decently high attainment. In maths around 20% get A*s. I have always thought that putting a students rankings is fairly normal?

My stats and stuff are good (4 a star, 9 9s).

But, in my reference, my maths teacher said I rank into the top 30% of the cohort. My cohort only gets about 20-25% a star on avg.

Im applying for econ at Oxford (EnM), Warwick, UCL, Imperial and LSE Management.

Will this reference and terrible ranking disadvantage me, and to what extent, as Im sure the other applicants will at least have a top 10% or something like that.

I feel like my chances just dropped drastically... Any opinions are greatly appreciated

1) That is not a terrible ranking.
2) I can't imagine any admissions tutor has access to your cohort's average data - the school's historical data possibly, but I can't imagine they would find the time to go and look it up. Your referee enters a predicted grade, half a sentence in the UCAS reference doesn't replace that.
3) "I'm sure the other applicants will at least have a top 10%" - stop being sure, you have no idea what any other application says.

1) That is not a terrible ranking.
2) I can't imagine any admissions tutor has access to your cohort's average data - the school's historical data possibly, but I can't imagine they would find the time to go and look it up. Your referee enters a predicted grade, half a sentence in the UCAS reference doesn't replace that.
3) "I'm sure the other applicants will at least have a top 10%" - stop being sure, you have no idea what any other application says.

Yeah honestly it’s just a case where the people around me are ranked top 10, 10% etc and they are applying to the same stuff as me, with the same stats bar the reference ranking. So in my small picture of the applicant pool, I feel quite disadvantaged. You are right, that doesn’t reflect the general applicant level.
As an aside, do you think top 15 would be seen or differentiated from top 33%. Or would an admissions tutor most likely realise that top 33% would equal to around 15 people if the cohort size for 50 and etc.

That part of the reference will be totally ignored! A reference should b about YOU not your cohort.

Wait am I typing it wrong.
It is about my performance in the context of my cohort.
So I am in the top 30% of my cohort.
I’m pretty sure you know what I mean but just in case I worded it poorly previsouly

Yes and that information is worthless - the teaacher should be talking about YOU and your ability not other people - it's poor practice!

Cohort data is on DfE performance tables, so is freely available - but the comment is not something sensible to include.

Yeah honestly it’s just a case where the people around me are ranked top 10, 10% etc and they are applying to the same stuff as me, with the same stats bar the reference ranking. So in my small picture of the applicant pool, I feel quite disadvantaged. You are right, that doesn’t reflect the general applicant level.
As an aside, do you think top 15 would be seen or differentiated from top 33%. Or would an admissions tutor most likely realise that top 33% would equal to around 15 people if the cohort size for 50 and etc.

Per subject?
As this is a subject teacher comment?
So it's that students maths cohort, the current Y13 Maths. That's on DfE?
I'm not aware of my A Level History group data being on DfE. There's less than 10 students in my class.