<p>So I fell in love with UPenn when I toured it. I know it's my first choice, but I'm not sure if I should apply ED or not because my grades are really on an upward trend since freshman year.
Freshman year I got mostly A's, a couple B's.
Sophmore year I got an equal amount of A's and B's.
Junior year I really got serious and got all A's with one B (which should've been an A, really. Curses.)
and senior year I'm planning on working really hard and getting all A's with some difficult classes. Should I wait and turn in a better transcript RD, or will ED give me a better chance?</p>
<p>You should apply ED. If admissions feel like they need to see your second semester grades, you will be deferred and will still have a chance of being admitted in the spring. I think roughly 10% of deferred candidates are ultimately admitted which is quite similar to the RD acceptance rate overall. If you apply ED and are denied, you most likely would have been denied as well if you had applied RD. ED makes the process less random for qualified applicants because they have shown interest in Penn. However, it is still very competitive. I know of two kids who applied ED from my former high school this year who were not accepted ED (at least one was outright denied), but will be going to Cornell and Princeton.</p>
<p>Also, if you see your grades improving, submit first quarter grades (if your school has them). My HS calculates GPA at the semester, but we have quarter grades (just to show our progress halfway through the semester). I had all A+/A/A- in 5 APs, including Calc BC and Econ (which I think really helped for Wharton). Even though these quarter grades were submitted after Nov 1, they still reached admissions in time, and, hurrah!</p>