Mr. Disgruntled Academic

A disgruntled academic, huh? Well, join the club. I suspect there are quite a few of you out there. Congrats on securing that VC internship. That’s a very good start to help you get into a highly selective business school. Schools will worry that you are something of a lifetime student since you have not only a BA and an MBA but also worked toward a PhD before dropping out. You need to convince them that you now are certain and serious about your career goals and why you had a change of heart. Otherwise, they will think you are a bit aimless and searching. That would make your application dead on arrival. Your 730 GMAT is solid, though it could be on the low side for the most successful Indian applicants which I assume you are. The 3.6 at the University of Toronto is also pretty much in line, and you have solid work experience. So I think the key to your success is what I said above. You need to convince admissions in both your application and via in-person meetings via Zoom or real in-person that you are not an academic flake and now know that i-banking is what you want and have a good reason for it. If you can do that, your odds are pretty good. If not, you would have to aim for a Cornell and a UNC instead of the very elite schools you are currently targeting. By the way, both Cornell and UNC have excellent i-banking programs so you could easily achieve your goals at those MBA programs.