If the high school does not release class rank, how do the top-tier colleges analyze the grades? Even if they were mainly A’s in many AP Courses, how do they determine the rigor if there could be grade inflation and whatnot?
Does not having class rank serve as a disadvantage?
No. Many, many high schools do not rank. A guidance counselor/school official will need to send the Secondary School Report to your colleges in which the GC will rate the rigor of your schedule. [url=http://ugadm.northwestern.edu/documents/UG_Admissions_SecondarySchoolReport.pdf]Here’s[/url] an example. Often, the school will send a school profile which will outline academic requirements and limitations, AP courses offered, college matriculations, GPA by decile, and a ton of other info. [url=http://www.newton.k12.ma.us/cms/lib8/MA01907692/Centricity/domain/28/counseling/NNHSprofile2014-2015.pdf]Here’s[/url] an example. The colleges can read between the lines by comparing your GPA to the GPA distribution in the school profile. Of, course, if other students from your school apply to the same college, they will review your GPA vs. the other applicants.
Our HS does not rank and tons of kids get into top colleges/universities. Each HS provides a school profile with each transcript which shows things like what level of classes are offered, marking system, grade distribution etc. so your grades/classes will be reviewed in the proper context. No worries.
@skieurope when you said that the colleges compare your GPAs to others from your school, do they also compare the entire applications of your school peers also in determining the admission?
^Yes
@skieurope so then would being a top applicant but not the top at your school mean that you are more likely to get rejected? and conversely does being the top applicant overall from your school also mean you are more likely to get accepted?
in other words, how do they put you in context of the entire applicant pool?
^ Not necessarily. There are many factors that go into a college application in addition to GPA. Top colleges will be looking at test scores, EC’s, recs, essays, and (potentially) hooks as well. If, to use as an example, Harvard accepts 5 students from HS X, they may not be the top 5 ranks amongst the applicants; Harvard wanted those 5 for some intangible (in Part) reason.
However, the question originally asked was how a college would judge an application without a provided rank. If a college gets 10 applications from a HS, you can be sure that they are taking those 10 folders and arranging them in some type of order. They may order them by GPA, they may not. But the college will clearly be able to tell which of those 10 had the highest rank. Whether they end up admitting that student is another story.