<p>I looked on collegedata, and I never knew that rank counted for so much. I mean I did, but not to this extent. I don't even see many applicants that were in the "top 25%"! :-</p>
<p>It's very discouraging.</p>
<p>I don't know my class rank, but I'm sure I'm in the top 25% out of 170 students at a medical magnet school.</p>
<p>Am I given some sort of leeway?! :-</p>
<p>Class rank definitely is one of the major factors in admission decisions. While most public schools give the class rank, many of the private schools are shying away from that. Then the college ADCOMs have to calculate a rank by themselves which can be dicey. If your rank is actually high, you will probably be hurt a bit by not having a rank given by your high school.</p>
<p>I think the downside of ranking is when you come from a small school (such as Op's) one point (4.0 to 3.98) can really do damage which it is why it is not unusual for small schools to supply no ranking.</p>
<p>right now i'm #10 out of about 350. is that good for most top colleges? which ones would be out of my range?</p>
<p>You are in the top 3% of your class. You should be ok. Keep in mind that when it comes to admissions at elite schools nothing is certain. All you can do is present your best self , have a balanced list of schools and let the process play itself out.</p>
<p>good luck to you.</p>
<p>I'm not in the top 10% though, and I know that a lot of colleges really desire that number set.</p>
<p>The other school I should be going to has like a 80 people in the top 10%.</p>
<p>We do GPA on the 100-point scale, so it's even harder.</p>
<p>what about decile rank? You see, at my school, and at many others probably, we don't have number-specific rankings (ie. 3/494); at my school, 3 different people can have a 4.3 GPA (we don't do +/-). So there's no knowing what the admins will assume if it says you're in the top 10% ?? For example, based on grades/courses, they might say "hmm, she's probably near the top" or "hmm, he's probably near the bottom" ?? What're your opinions on decile rank and how that factors in ? (as opposed to number-specific rank ? )</p>
<p>How do colleges recalculate GPAs? How does this solve anything if people come from different schools?</p>