@uwalummom My son is a senior from Arizona and his high school also doesn’t rank. We just put in 25 out of 100 or something like that in the calculator and it estimated that he would receive the $8000 annual Award for Competitive Excellence. The inputted class ranking didn’t seem to affect the estimated award. He applied in mid July and was accepted on July 21. ISU is really fast!
On September 9, he was formally awarded the $8000 annual ACE award. We visited in early October and were pleased when on October 27, ISU also offered a two-year, $3500/year scholarship from the College of Engineering.
When he applied, my son had a 3.52/4.0 UW GPA from one of the top US high schools and a 33 from his one sitting for the ACT. He also passed 15 AP exams. His extracurriculars were good, but not great.
BTW, ISU is one of my son’s two top choices right now, along with Michigan State, which also offered some great scholarships, so the two colleges would cost almost the same. Next on his list is Alabama, which would be significantly cheaper. Finally, the two in-state colleges, ASU and Arizona also offered scholarships, which would bring their net costs just below ISU, but still more than Alabama.