School Selection Reality Check

Thank you for taking the time to look at my situation. I know that you get countless evaluation requests and so your willingness to sit down and respond to mine is much appreciated. What I am hoping for is a good old fashioned reality check. I have spent the last year dreaming, researching, studying for the GMAT and reading every book I can get my hands on about the application process and top U.S. business schools. But I have yet to ask an expert. So here I go. What I need most right now is some guidance as to which top 20 business schools (if any) are realistic targets given my atypical background.

About Me.
I am a 32 year old (34 at matriculation 2013) white male born in Montana and raised in Idaho. Since the age of 19 I have lived almost 7 years overseas in two Latin American countries. At present, I live in the Republic of Panama where I own and run a low-income housing development company. I am a serial entrepreneur starting my first business when I was 14. At 21, in late 2000, I returned to Idaho from a two year service mission in Venezuela and got my real estate license. I focused my efforts on helping my clients find investment property and residential development property. Soon after getting my license I formed my own real estate marketing team and hired a handful of office help and sales people. I also, in 2004, co-founded a mortgage origination firm that, at its peak, was closing over $15 million in residential loans each month.

By the beginning of 2007 my real estate marketing team was chugging along, I was the top producer in my state under the age of 30, I had partnered with several of my clients to develop in the state and our mortgage company had expanded to two offices employing over 35 employees. Times were good and I thought myself to be pretty dang smart – of course you know the rest of the story. I wasn’t as smart as I thought. Our mortgage company had the unfortunate coincidence of being one of the top sub-prime originators in the state and the real estate market dried up. My bubble literally burst. I found myself broke, without a college degree, and unable to find a job.

I wallowed in my grief for a few months and then decided it was time to pick myself up and get back at it – this time with a smarter and more conservative plan that included getting an education. I called one of my former clients, and a partner on several of our developments in Idaho and pitched him the idea of forming a housing development company in the republic of Panama. After some serious coaxing he bought into the concept and I moved my wife and kids to Panama where I currently reside. At the same time, I enrolled in a 1st tier U.S. public university that still maintains a full campus in the now defunct U.S. Panama Canal zone. In choosing to get my education, I promised myself that I would never find myself in a similar economic pickle again.

I am now in my last semester of school and have a very strong desire to pursue a full-time MBA matriculating in 2013 (I have 3 solid reasons for why an MBA now but, for reasons of time, I won’t mention them here). However, it doesn’t make sense to put my life on hold for 2 years unless I can get admitted to a top 20 school. Right now I work 40 hours a week running our housing development company. I go to school full-time where I am majoring in International Affairs with a concentration in Economics. I volunteer as a scout master at the local troop of the Boy Scouts of America in Panama. I am married with three kids that keep me on my toes constantly. I feel I have the discipline, work ethic, intelligence, and drive to succeed at the best business schools in the U.S. (Stanford, Wharton, Harvard, Booth) but I am also a realist. I’m not a traditional Ivy League educated, BCG groomed 26 year-old with 48 months of work experience. I’m quite a bit older than the mean and very atypical – especially considering the entrepreneurial nature of my work experience and that some of it overlaps my undergraduate education. So what schools do I have a shot at, if any? Is Tuck, Darden, or Fuqua a possibility? I lean towards a smaller more intimate or close-knit type school but would consider a larger one if it fit my personality.

Thanks again and I look forward to your insights.

Additional Info.
GPA: 3.45 overall (failed two science classes) with a 3.9 in economics, statistics and business classes. So far I have a 4.0 in upper division classes with one semester to go.
GMAT: I plan on sitting for the test this summer. I am currently taking Manhattan GMAT prep and scored a 710 on my latest practice. I am confident that my score will come in north of 700.