Mr. Governance Reform

What an admirable background you bring to the game. I am in awe of anyone who has devoted him or herself to the many global challenges we face, from poverty and inequality to climate change and peace and justice. Your Big Life Wins are super impressive as well. Your work background, however, seems incomplete since you are 26 and have just a year’s worth of experience at the national ministry. I think HBS is a real long shot for you, in part because your basic stats are just okay and not superlative, your undergraduate institution is not a feeder to Harvard, and unless I am missing something, you don’t have enough work experience to be a solid candidate at HBS. As a male Indian engineer, though, you have lifted yourself out of the overrepresented pile by pursuing an unusual line of work and distinguishing yourself in that regard. Instead of tossing a “Hail Mary” pass at Harvard, I would broader your choice of business schools. Yale SOM and Berkeley, among other schools, would be fantastic choices for you, given your socially minded passion and goals. Those schools, in my opinion, also would be reaches but not nearly as much as HBS.