<p>I am an out of state applicant from New York and I am not in the top 10% of my class. However, this is, in most part, due to bad grades freshman year. Since then my grades hae been on an upward trend. I have take 8 AP courses, done well in all of them, and at this point i am getting higher grades in AP Phisics, Calc, Gov, and Lit than most in the top 10 and even top five students in my class. So my question is; how much is this taken into account at W&M? I have really grown up since freshman year, and I think my grade trend shows this. Thank you for your responces.</p>
<p>Class rank is all about context. We look at class rank in relation to the courses you took, the courses that are offered, the competitiveness of your high school and your grade trend. Certainly upward trends are appreciated and looked at far better than say downward grade trends. Your first-semester grades could be critical…more so than those applicants who have consistently earned good grades so be sure they are forward to W&M when available.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that there will be plenty of applicants who have consistently earned very high marks and you are competing for admission against those applicants but while they may be a little more comeptitive than you in terms of grades, you may be more competitive in other area (classes, extracurricular activities, essay, etc).</p>
<p>If you wish, you are welcome to use the additional information section of the Common App to explain why your grades in 9th grade weren’t where you wanted them to be.</p>