<p>I've heard that the ED acceptance rate is significantly higher; is this true? I love Penn and am definitely considering applying ED.</p>
<p>It helps but those numbers are skewed by athletes and legacies. Still though if you’re sure you want to come here apply ED.</p>
<p>This year, the ED acceptance rate was about 26%, the RD acceptance rate was 9.5%, and the overall acceptance rate (ED + RD) was 12.3%. However, as FP14 noted, the ED rate is skewed somewhat by athletes, legacies, etc. (statistically, legacies only get a bump during the ED round, and Penn’s stated admissions policy bacially confirms this). However, given that Penn really wants kids for whom Penn is a first choice, ED is definitely the way to go if Penn is, indeed, your first choice.</p>
<p>Simply from examining the admissions results from students in my area, ED gives one’s chance a clear boost.</p>
<p>ED will help make the process less of a crapshoot for a well qualified applicant because the pool is smaller. In regular decision, the decision may seem very random (although there always are subtle reasons for everything) just because there are so many more applicants than there are spots. However, this is not to say that applying ED guarantees one to get into Penn or that people who do not get in aren’t accepted at other great schools, including ivy leagues, during rd. I know a kid who was deferred and then rejected who got into regular decision Brown for example.
In my experience (in the sciences) I don’t really see much of a difference in the people admitted ED vs. the people who were admitted RD. One of the ways I think that applying early helped me personally is that since I went to a very competitive public high school that sends over thirty applications to Penn every year, I was able to stand out among a smaller group.</p>
<p>I agree with Poeme. I went with ED because only 6 others applied ED to Penn from my high school, while about 30 applied RD. Just be sure that you are 100% set on Penn before applying ED.</p>
<p>Just a note about FA - Don’t let financial aid prevent you from doing ED. If your family is not satisfied with your financial aid package and you did ED, you can submit an appeal to the financial aid office and negotiate with them so that you can afford Penn more easily. They were really reasonable and I got a decent amount more after my parents talked to them.</p>
<p>A **** ton. The legacy ED admit rate hovers between 35-40% and I’m pretty sure I’d get in if I applied ED to Penn as a legacy. Too bad it’s not my first choice… :(</p>
<p>certain schools it helps more than others… penn is huge on ed… if you apply and really show you wana be there… it makes all the diff in the world</p>
<p>hey guys! I was told that to apply early decision anywhere, you need a really brilliant spring report card because that’s what they would see…
I was wondering what’s more worth it then? Having excellent final exam grades this year & then work really hard next year until christmas & apply RD…OR apply ED & not have as much to impress them with but it’d be a smaller application pool…
Sorry, I know that’s not really a straightforward answer but any help would be great :)</p>