Latin American - Accepted at Wharton and worked for my Top1 choice

Hi,

I would like to tell my story. My key takeaways from this story are two: although is a hard process, the MBA application tests basically grit! and... the GMAT is only one piece of the application (really!).

My profile
I started this journey almost four years ago when I decided that I needed an MBA to get to better job positions and in the long term, to become a CEO of a large corporation on my region (Latin America). I'm from Chile, studied in one in the best universities of my country (PUC). I studied Business and Economics and then I did a Master in Economics (Ph.D. in Econ was my path at that time). Almost 5 years of working experience in Corporate Development and a part-time university professor (Economics 101).

GMAT
I did it four times! The first time was in 2012, but I did it without studying, just to see what this is about, hoping (this was very dumb) that I would be able to have a good score without studying it. "I was good at math and I read a lot of books in English, so I would be OK". Obviously, I got a bad score: 610.
Then, in 2013 I was decided to get my MBA. I studied for my GMAT (for real this time!) and I got a surprising result: 670 with V38(84%) and Q44(61%). Never in my life, I had had those scores in V. But my math was very weak. So, the second time (for real)! Let's study math. Result? The opposite. 660 with V33(68%) and Q49(80%). Damn it. Not good. Last time... If I don't have a good score (good enough) I'm not pursuing an MBA and I will wait another year. My prep? Just a couple of extra practice tests every weekend and some work on my weaknesses (SC and DS). Final score: 700(89%) with V36(80%) and Q49(81%). Both strong enough to be near the Top10%. Good!

TOEFL
That was one shot and it was OK. 106. Not good enough for Harvard (not on my shortlist anyway) but good enough.

Applications
I applied to 5 schools on R1 and 1 for R2 (because I didn't have too much time to dedicate to R2)
My shortlist: Stanford, Kellogg, Haas, Fuqua, Anderson. Between Wharton and Booth for R1, I chose to apply to Wharton.
PostMBA career goal? PE in Latin America.
Results? Stanford dinged; Kellogg, 1R interview (of course... they interview everyone), dinged; Haas, 1R interview, waitlist; Fuqua; 1R interview, waitlist; Anderson: 1R interview, waitlist. Not good either.
For R2 I did a better job researching the schools (Booth vs. Wharton) and talking with alumni. Networking. Then.. I decided to go for Wharton. It was the best school and I had a very good fit with those two. Let's try to reach to the top... and it worked! They sent me the acceptance letter after the TBD and everything was perfect! After a lot of suffering, I was able to get that letter from one of the H/S/W.

MBA
Best two years of my life. The put me constantly out of my comfort zone. Personally and professionally. I met great friends, great people. Great classes!

PostMBA
I worked on my Top1 choice (Apple) on my Top1 job position (Operations, Analytics) for 2.5 years. I was able to live in Cupertino, California. Very hard to keep a good quality of life in Silicon Valley, so decided to go back to my home country and now I'm working for a consulting firm ... and launching a new MBA Admissions service targeted to Spanish-speaking applicants!