pra17

Hi All, I'm a working professional in the US and am targeting Finance PhD programs for Fall 2017. Here's my profile: GRE: Q-170/V-161 Undergrad GPA: 8.59/10 BS-Engineering from India Graduate GPA: 3.64/4.0 MBA Finance from USA. It's from a 70-80 ranked university. Research Experience: Worked as a Marketing Research Assistant for one year during my MBA. No publications though. Teaching Experience: None. Worked as a Graduate Assistant for a Business Information Systems Course for one term during my MBA. Work Experience: Have 8 years of experience. 4 Years before and after my MBA. Software Programming before my MBA, Data visualization and analytics involving Statistical packages like R, regression modeling, predictive models using time series analysis, NPV analysis for operational spend management, financial statement analysis etc. I've also done a Credit Risk Management internship during my MBA in one of the Indian banks. That gave an understanding of Basel frameworks. Courses: Undergrad: Mathematics I (grade A), Mathematics II (grade A), Engineering Mathematics (grade C ), Probability and Statistics ( grade B ), Engineering Economics ( A ), Statistical Theory of Communication ( B ) [This was related to the application of statistics in telecom engineering)In my MBA, I've got A in all my Finance courses although I see from the forums that MBA is not considered very significant. Had a Statistics Pre-req but that was more of basic statistical concepts. In addition, I've also taken a couple of online decision analysis courses at Stanford which involved lot of probabilistic and statistical analysis. I've also done a couple of descriptive and inferential statistics courses on a couple of MOOC platforms. Regarding my research areas, i'm interested in corporate finance - banking and role of financial intermediation, credit risk esp. in emerging markets. Letters of recommendations: I can ask one of the marketing professors for whom I was an RA and another finance professor to speak on my academic abilities and one from the industry to speak on my data analysis skills. I'm interested in getting into Academia and Research after my PhD.What range of schools should I target for my profile? I plan to apply for fall 2017 admissions. What are my chances at top schools (NYU/Stanford/Berkeley/etc)?Appreciate if members could give some suggestions around safety schools. Thanks much!