<p>This might be confusing, so bear with me.</p>
<p>I really want to apply to Penn Engineering ED, and my physics teacher is writing an amazing rec for me.</p>
<p>But, the other recommender I have right now is from a humanities class that was a one-semester elective in 10th grade... He would write a really good rec too, but the class was kind of a joke, so I don't know if it's really a good idea. My US Hist teacher is writing me a rec for regular decision schools (it's complicated), and so if I wait to apply to Penn RD, then I can get another legit (and awesome) rec from him.</p>
<p>So, reasons for applying RD:
- The US Hist rec would look better than the other one just because it came from a more serious class and it's more recent. (My physics teachers will carry the most weight since it's engineering, but still).
- My 1st semester grades will be higher than 1st quarter grades so far (Calc and Physics are A/A+'s though)
- I could take the Physics SAT in December. Right now I have an 800 Math II and 780 Chem, but SEAS recommends taking physics...</p>
<ul>
<li>I might get my name on some pretty big research at the physics lab I'm interning at. It's not certain, but it's a possibility.</li>
<li>I might reach an expert-level rating in chess soon. Again, only a possibility.</li>
</ul>
<p>Other info:
I have a 3.83 and a 2340
There are a lot of legacies applying to Penn ED (mostly to CAS, but still)</p>
<p>So the question is... does the boost from ED outweigh the other factors, like having 2 great recs versus 1 great and 1 mediocre rec?</p>
<p>I could just pack it in with Northwestern ED since it only requires one rec... I like NU, but I like Penn more. What would you do if you were me?</p>