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Hello Arindam Das,

Thank you for your post!

As you may be aware, as an Indian national with a degree from an Indian institution, you come from an oversubscribed pool of applicants. Many of your fellow country men and women with similar academic histories (if not professional experiences) are also targeting top programs, and that makes it even more difficult to truly stand out or differentiate yourself. This would make your GMAT score and GPA even more important factor in your candidacy. Fortunately, a 740 GMAT score will be competitive, as will your GPA. That said, you need to think about what would differentiate you further in the admissions process. It looks like you have a keen grasp of your impact on efficiency and the bottom line for Tata, but you will also need to emphasize your direct management and leadership in your applications. Your personal interests in music and motorcycles should add some color to your applications, but it would help you to be more competitive to engage your community outside of work--in other words, outside of your comfort zone. Overall, it's important to be able to demonstrate interests and activities outside of school or work. It seems like music and motorcycling will be especially important activities for you, but you may also want to consider getting involved in at least one club or other group-based organization in order to fully showcase the kind of community member you would be in school. Finally, given that you want to return to India, I'm assuming you do not have experience outside of India and that would impact schools' perception of your experience. In other words, international experience would make you more competitive by helping you stand out in the admissions process.

In terms of programs to consider, you could have MIT / Sloan on your list, along with Chicago Booth, though I think these may be stretch options given your background and the depth of applicants coming from India. If you are interested in the Northeast region of the U.S., you may also look into Cornell / Johnson; they have several depth concentrations focused on finance. Given your interest in social entrepreneurship, you may look into Yale SOM as well; however, the adcoms may look for evidence of your commitment to social entrepreneurship in your record (to assure them of your commitment to this path), but it does not seem like you have supporting activities. Georgetown / McDonough also has an initiative in global social enterprise.

If you'd like to discuss how you can stand out in the admissions process or school options more, please contact us directly at www.clearadmit.com/services/free-consultation/.