Title says it all.
How would they?
Unless everyone from your HS applies to the same college, finding your rank would be impossible. A college can compare you to the rest of your school, using the school profile, but that’s it.
Even if the school doesn’t rank, your decile could be reported in the guidance counselor’s report?
(Just speculating, not sure about this.)
It’s honestly not worth worrying about - people on CC seem obsessed with rank, even though most HS don’t rank. The only time rank is probably even considered is if there is a wide disparity between the GPA and rank - severe grade inflation or deflation.
For the most part, you are correct, but it depends on the HS. Many HS’s will provide a school profile which may list GPA’s by decile or some other type of scattergram. [url=http://www.newton.k12.ma.us/cms/lib8/ma01907692/centricity/domain/28/counseling/nnhsprofile2014-2015.pdf]Here[/url] is an example. Additionally, if numerous applicant from the same school apply, one should assume that the AO will sort in GPA order even if the school does not rank.
I used to be confused about this too. I really wish colleges would get rid of,what is clearly an obsolete criterion in assessing applications. Most schools don’t rank anymore, though they might tell the highest three kids in the grade.
Twice in this thread, posters have said that most schools do not rank. Is this really true? I had never heard of a school not ranking before joining CC. Maybe this is regional, or a public vs private school difference. I can see where it makes sense that a private school or a public magnet school where everyone is high achieving doesn’t have ranks. But the vast majority of kids go to standard public schools. Have they also stopped ranking?
Any relation to Sarah? 
Or when applying to Texas public universities.
@me29034 , no high schools where we live rank, and I think this might be true of many schools with highly competitive students. Our school doesn’t rank for this reason. A college looks at the profile of the school, what classes are offered, and a range of other stuff. Example, my D has good grades, but not 4.0. Many of her classmates have a higher GPA, but guess what? Those kids are doing regular classes, while my D is taking 4 APs. This is why ranking is not an effective tool. A better use of,the school profile is to see where my daughter falls within kids who have similar course loads to her. If there was a big discrepancy between her and the valedictorian with grades, and the V is taking classes similar to my kid (which I happen to know she is), that would cause concern. But if the all the top kids have roughly similar grades in tough clases, the college knows the school probably isn’t inflating grades. Ranking is useless.
I go to a highly competitive public school where no ranks are given. I was just worrying because I know for a fact that I’m between the top 10-15% of my class (which is over 10%, so I’m assuming that’s pretty bad for the colleges that I’m applying to). Because I know a kid who got 4.0 UW during his junior year but never took a single AP (just an example for what probably happens to other kids at my school as well), and it seems that colleges are fed up whether you’re in the top 10% or not.
Oh, I just looked up my school’s profile and it states that no rank/deciles are reported.
(And of course, I should have mentioned that rank is very important for Texas HS students.)
My school does not rank, but…
we do submit a high school profile, which includes the percentages of kids who meet certain GPA ranges…
ex.
100%+ : 1%
95%+: 14%
90% 20%
ect…
And I’m pretty sure that colleges will use that to figure out your approximate class rank if your school does do the same.
@Kelvas Yeah I know, but I was saying that under the “Grade Distribution” of my school’s profile, it states “Rank/decile in class is not computed by District Policy”, then it just says “A=Excellent… Etc.”
Many college counselors and people who write recommendations are trained to write in a way that can convey the rank, if not with any precision. Many counselors will write that this student is “at the very top of the class” or “among the top students” to convey that the student in the top 10%. Weaker recommendations say something like, “she’s one of the better students,” which implies in the top 50%. I know that these words don’t help the middling or average student (although the absence of this language in your recommendation may itself be a message) but that’s how many schools address the lack of rank. Also, the school honor society or NHS may also be defined in the school profile provided to the college; it will usually say that the top X% of the junior class is selected, or it may give the number of inductees. So if you were selected for NHS, that’s usually a good indication that you are in the top 10%.
@spayurpets , on a different topic, this is also why NHS matters not a whit to colleges. At my D’s school, almost 1/4 the school is in NHS, because it only matters that your grades average above 88, but no requirement as to AP or Honors classes. NHS is meaningless at our school, but it is useful for service hours.
@spayurpets: Also, in private schools, I believe that membership in the Cum Laude Society is limited to the top 10% of the class; so if a student is a member of that group, a college will know generally where such student ranks in his or her class (even if there are no “official” rankings).
@gandalf78, at my school it was top 20%, but your overall point still stands.
It may vary by school, but mine was also top 20%
^ At our school it used to be top 10% for juniors and top 20% for seniors; but the school changed it this year to make it top 10% for both juniors and seniors, and added National Honor Society to gather up those students falling between the top 10-20%.