Please review my profile for Fall '12

Being young is certainly not a crime; I pointed out simply to let you know that AdComs will be especially curious of your ability to succeed in the corporate world when the lots of your classmate will be at an age of 26 and 27. Again, as long as you have a coherent explaination as to why you're applying at the age of 21 (or 22), you'll be fine. Your GPA is actually fine, believe it or not. A 3.55 would put you in the running for any b-school in the nation, including H/S/W. My earlier post was discussing simply your GMAT and I really only talked about that because you come from a traditional applicant pool; thus, making it harder for any Indians to get in. Again, I stand by the point that if you're able to raise your GMAT to 750, it'll certainly boost your chance at any school.

For finance, and especially the field that you want to get into, the better the school, the better your chance is (ranking-wise).

From Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, I'd pick just 1 (or 2 if you're really keen on going to a top 3 school). Any of them would do the trick for you, but I'd stick to the east coast if you want to work on the east coast, and west on the west.

Columbia and Booth will be the next two that I'd include - both are famously known for their finance programs and placements. Yale and NYU also have some good finance tracks. Then if you want, you can have Ross and Johnson on there as well. Johnson is serving primarily as a backup, though it's still a very hard school to get in. I wouldn't really leave the top 16 b-schools simply because it becomes harder and harder to get in trading for these schools, because fewer top firms recruit at lower-ranking schools. Make sense. LSB is a great school, but if you wish to work in the States post-MBA, I would leave that one alone. However, if you're looking at the Europe market post-MBA, definitely look at LSB (but in this case, you probably want to get rid a whole lot of the US schools). Recruiting for a europe job while attending a US b-school will make your life a living hell. The times you have to travel and the amount of expense you'll accrue is simply not worth it. If you want to be in the states, go to a state school. Last, but not least, the above schools that I picked out are by no means the only schools you should go for. Realize that if you were to attend any of the top schools, you'll have your shot to get into a top firm. So yes, MIT and Berkeley will also do the trick, just as Dartmouth Tuck and Northwestern Kellogg will get you where you want to go. I simply pick the programs that I picked because of their high finance placements post-MBA.