Hi All,

Here are my stats. Any comments, suggestions, or help would be very much appreciated. After HBS & GSB (expected next week) Round 1 dings, I'm re-evaluating my Round 2 chances and personal expectations. Not sure if I should remain hopeful for other top-10 programs like Wharton, CBS, Booth, or aim a little lower (top-20). Sorry for the length. I'm partly using this as an exercise in self-reflection.

Profile
Male
29 Year Old
Mexican American
First in Family to College
Living in New York City
730 GMAT (V44, Q47)

Education
HYP Ivy - B.A. Architecture with Distinction
3.4 GPA (Overall) 3.8 GPA (Major)

HYP Ivy - Master of Architecture (3-Yr Professional Program)
Pass/Low-Pass/Fail grading- received all Passes

Major Extracurriculars
Appointed Teaching Fellow for 3 Courses in Graduate School
Appointed Teaching Assistant for 1 Course in Graduate School
A few other minor leadership positions for clubs, publications.

Accreditation
Licensed Architect in NY State (Required 5600 internship hours post-Masters degree, and passing 7 separate State Exams)
Licensed Real Estate Salesperson in NY State (Required 75-hr course, and passing State Exam)

Work Experience
2-years at Large International Architecture Firm, working on massive developments in China (2mil SF+)
1.5-years at Boutique Architecture/Development Firm focused on NYC high-end Condo Development
.5 (Current) Founded Real Estate Development Startup and have become Real Estate Agent

Goal
To transition from architecture to real estate development. Post-MBA, would like to be at a large, multinational Real Estate Development/Investment/Management company, or at an IB in the Real Estate division.

Main Weaknesses
Work Experience
A) Early-career architecture experience is essentially an apprenticeship, with few opportunities for significant leadership or responsibility. Your only choice is often to simply take orders from those with 10+ more years of experience, while jumping from project to project. I worry much of this will be perceived poorly when juxtaposed to more traditional pre-MBA job experience where there is typically opportunity for growth & promotions and quantifiable means of measurement (sold X amount, led X teammates, analyzed X, etc). Any of my supervisors would give me the highest performance marks; this just doesn't translate to significant promotion within firms.

B) Previous job ended in a layoff (not performance based; office lost a few projects).

C) Currently working on own Real Estate company startup with the intention of starting a few projects soon. Have also become a RE Agent. This career direction had been my intention (I incorporated Jan '12) but the timing of the unexpected layoff makes it seem like a euphemism for being 'unemployed'. When attempting a startup, not sure how much adcom committees expect in the form of tangible accomplishments.


Quantitative Performance
Have a very dismal C+ in Calc and C- in another math course during my sophomore year of undergrad (a whole 10-yrs ago now), and nearly no other Quant courses on my transcript. I was overly focused on my architecture major, and simply didn't give much effort on many of my other courses that year. Since then, I have a B+ in Physics, a B+ in Structures (Statics), and a 'Pass' in the graduate level Structures II. Additionally, I passed the NY State 'Structures' exam required for licensure.
I'm fully aware I'd have to take 'math camp' prior to enrolling at any school, but wonder if some of this past quant performance is the weakest link in my application, only remedied by a good performance in some kind of Continuing Education Stat or Econ class prior to applying.


Essays
I did not use the optional essays to confront these weaknesses, and now realize that I should have. Would definitely do this in future applications.


Thank you all for your thoughts.