@hannahyalea I’m not sure about honors and ranking but I know you it shouldn’t hold you back from being admitted. My D1 was admitted to CLA last year and her school doesn’t rank.
The really great thing about the UMN application is that no essay is required. If you need to submit a personal statement there is a section that allow you to. You should speak to your HS counselor about any subject you plan to bring up so that your strengths are emphasized. I’d think if your grades slipped a lot last year then that might be a potential red flag for an admissions committee so an explanation of some sort might be helpful (you would need to submit a transcript before senior grades are available so your junior grades are super important). Your counselor can help you figure out what you would need to include. It might be that you don’t need the personal statement at all, of course.
Is the 3.9 GPA weighted or unweighted? If your unweighted rank is around 23% and the uw GPA is strong, then you are still an excellent candidate for admission to CLA, especially with your interesting choice of major. Here are the mid-range stats:
http://admissions.tc.umn.edu/academics/profile.html
As @Michroos advises, check out the campus before making any final decisions. Good luck!