Our HS says they don’t rank…but they do of course. I was able to get from guidance counselor my daughters class rank as they will give it to student and/parent if schools use it for scholarship determinations. They also give them to students applying to military academy. It is never listed on transcript.
Thank you! How did you approach it? Guidance had told us “ they have a way to base merit off previous admitted kids” and then didn’t want to entertain the conversation any further. Any advice of what to say to get them to tell me?
Ask the GC if they feel your student is competitive for merit based on previously admitted students stats for the schools on their list.
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In general, if a high school (or school district) doesn’t rank, then college admissions offices infer ranking from GPA, if they need to (though they usually don’t).
With the exception of things like valedictorian scholarships, financial aid offices are quite capable of doing the same. Even if it’s a school they’re unfamiliar with, it’s pretty straightforward if you take into account type of school (i.e., public, religious, independent), size, location, and presumably a couple other things.
I didn’t know about the UA free app week or I probably would have waited. lol
I had D23 apply immediately as it was her #1 choice.
She got accepted, applied for Honors (auto admit), then the STEM to MBA program, finalized also.
She promptly received the Presidential Elite scholarship (and after we paid the $200 fee for housing) now has a Monday morning slot for choosing dorms.
Alabama has their act together.
As per an August thread she will use UMD as a safety/backup plan. 
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Ah great idea. Will do- thanks
Thank you! I appreciate all the advice on this thread!!!
Congrats to your D23! We are almost in the same boat (stats/ scholarship not major) except for #1 choice. Mine is waiting on Auburn decisions coming out this week and then will make the call on where Bama fits in her ranking. I find it really interesting the different ways the two AL flagships handle their recruiting/ timelines.
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My D23 was accepted to U of Arkansas this week with a scholarship covering 80% of out-of-state tuition. It’s her safety but seems like a nice place!
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I hear ya. My daughter never finished algebra and her geometry class was a one semester class that started February 2020. I’m guess that explains her math SAT score. 
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If it makes anyone feel better, my Ds’ ACT tutor said that the advanced math kids can have problems with algebra too - the kids that take algebra super early often forget the basics when SAT/ACT rolls around and the tutor has to review it with them.
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As far as big Merit schools go, UA has really showed or implied their interest while USF/UCF have yet to post their Scholarships. I have always taught mine to “dance with the one who brought you”. I find it hard to believe another more prestigious school can beat out UA even with a full COA.
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How would they infer the difference between a school where a 3.90UW means top 5% of the class from the school where it means top 20% of the class? HS’s are radically different in their grading standards.
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Maybe by using the GPA in combination with the school profile, if GPA distribution is included in the school profile.
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I assumed the reply had been response to my post which was the last about this above and mine had indicated that the school profile had absolutely no info on GPA distribution.
If they don’t have any info on GPA distribution, I agree with you that it would be impossible to infer rank from GPA alone.
Maybe they could make a guess if they get lots of applicants from that HS? Our HS doesn’t rank, and I believe it also doesn’t include GPA distribution in the school profile. But we have over 800 seniors each year, and I would guess that the institutions that receive many applications from our school may have an idea of our GPA distribution just from their experience.
Contra what conventional wisdom holds, grade assignment in high schools follows fairly predictable patterns.
The idea that there is huge variation in grading practices across high schools is straight-up myth.
Agree to disagree. There are posters here on CC that have reported 50% of their Bay Area high school’s graduating classes have unweighted 4.0s. My kids’ high school hasn’t graduated an unweighted 4.0 in at least 3 or 4 years. My S23 has an unweighted 3.7 and is 6th in his class. That gpa might seem really low coming from another school without any ranking.
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Like I said upthread, for an AO to be able to estimate they need to know certain characteristics of the high school, including things like region and school type.
But if general characteristics of the school are known then you can have a decent idea of what the grade distribution there is likely to be. The fact that high schools in different regions have different distributions does not falsify that claim.
I just don’t think AOs know that much about the schools they get applications from. Now, I am in California where the schools my son is applying to are receiving 50,000- 100,000 applications each cycle. I don’t think they know a ton about our small Christian school with 60-80 graduates each year, beyond what they see on a school profile.