Colleges in USA

Stanford gives mass MS admits and people who want to pursue Ph.D. there after their terminal master's may not get it. So it depends on whether you like research or not. If you want to apply for Ph.D. do it after your Bachelor's (but your profile should have rich and consistent research experience) else if you want to settle for your master's then the approach mentioned below should be followed :
1) GRE &get;= 330 TOEFL &get;=110, will increase your chances
2) You have an edge if you are from IIT, NIT and BITS with GPA &get; 8
3) Research experience - Not necessary. More important is doing coursework and course projects/internships in your field of interest. Doing research will boost your profile but if you investigate away from your field of interest it will harm you.
4) LORs - need not be from reputed people. Best combination would 2 from academia and 1 from corporate.
5) SOP - Most important. You should tell about your experiences and fine tune them to say how it will be useful to the programme you are aiming for. SOP should not reflect quantitative achievements (like scores) but what you learnt.
6) Extra-curriculars - Worth mentioning because they look at the balance you can create in you life.