Forego Security Deposit at Tuck for Wharton?

Both schools have strong alumni networks on the street. People often fail to realize that being 1/100000 IBD applicants at Wharton, is worse than being 1/40 IBD applicants at Tuck.

Great position to be in, and personally, I'd still go to Wharton. YOLO

It's only $24K. Means nothing in the long-term. Join me at Wharton this fall! Amazing school, great students, and tons of fun. It will be the most memorable 2 years of our lives.

Congrats on 2 fantastic programs. I'm actually headed to Tuck myself, and were it any other top ranked school but the H/S/W triumvirate I'd have advised you to sit tight. But this IS Wharton we're talking about. The NPV of that 4 grand you put down will be $0 if you head to Wharton. When it comes to the big 3 all bets are off.

Everyone else has pointed out how great Wharton is, so I'll just say this: there's absolutely nothing ethically wrong with reneging on your deposit. I personally know someone who gave up his Tuck EA deposit to matriculate at Sloan and there were no repercussions.

Edit: Also, you'd probably get more useful feedback if you posted this in the b school forum.

The whole point of Tuck making you give a deposit in the first place is so that they still get paid in the event you leave. Just look at is as a creditable insurance for the school where they say. Pay X amount and you can leave with no repercussions but we keep X, and if you come through and decide to join us than we will credit you X to the total.

Don't feel bad about reneging. You basically paid to have the option to. Think of it it this way. Ceteris Paribus, when it was time to apply to Wharton and Tuck, if you got admission to both at the exact same time, but you knew that Wharton was going to be 24k more expensive, which would you choose. This is a good way to really think about what value the 24k has to you in its actual meaning.

Personally, I would choose Wharton, but perhaps I am biased.