<p>The other thing I’ll add is that I would encourage you to resist the siren call of early decision unless you’re really sold on the place. I’m pretty sure Penn is an ED school, so, if you go that route and you’re accepted, you’re committed and you’ve foreclosed all your other options. </p>
<p>Early Action is a different story, and, echoing colorado_mom, in my daughter’s case it was really comforting to have an EA acceptance in her back pocket going into the rest of the RD process. It lowered her anxiety level and saved her some work by shaving a couple of safety apps off her list.</p>