<p>The Penn admissions website indicates that applying early decision is an advantage for applicants with alumni parents. Does applying early decision provide any advantage for students without an alumni connection?</p>
<p>ED Acceptance rate: 31.2%
RD Acceptance rate: 11.5%</p>
<p>The presence of legacy applicants and the quality difference between the ED pool and the RD pool are not enough to warrant such a huge discrepancy in acceptance rates.</p>