<p>I know it's important to many colleges, but what happens when a school does not do rankings, like mine?</p>
<p>It doesn’t affect you much, if not, at all.</p>
<p>It might benefit you if your ranking is low but your GPA is high, or harm you vice versa.</p>
<p>The ranking is used to put the applicant in the context of his/her school as a whole. </p>
<p>e.g.: Say your school applies pretty hard tests, and you, the valedictorian of your class, have a 3.0 GPA out of 4.0. For your 3.0 to be recognized as a good GPA, colleges need a base for comparison – that is the ranking.</p>
<p>In the case a ranking is unavailable, having your counselor to write about your performance in the context of the institution will work in the same way.</p>