Christina (SBC) Reviews

You will not regret working with Christina. Choosing her was an absolute game changer in my application strategy. I worked with her through all the steps of the application…from creating a strategy that worked for me all the way to choosing which offer to accept.

Yes, CHOOSING. I got into all 6 schools I applied to, incl. my dream school: HBS, GSB, Wharton, Columbia, Booth, Kellogg!!!

She truly cares about her candidates. She chooses them carefully and truly gets to know them at a deeper level. Through our discussions, I have learned so much about myself and the path I wanted to follow: a much needed introspection ahead of an MBA and when writing your essays! Her input was crucial when building the flow and themes for my essays.
She also becomes so invested in your success that she just goes above and beyond to support you throughout this process - she will be your advisor, coach, mentor, friend, role model, shoulder to cry on (virtually), and most importantly…your Nr.1 Fan. She knows the unique ways in which you shine and is able to leverage these to help you reach your goals. She gives honest advice and makes herself available when you need her. Most importantly, she is so resourceful and will help you find the best solutions to any roadblocks you’ll encounter along the way.

I can not recommend working with Christina enough! I would not be at my dream school today if it wasn’t for her.

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Christina was an absolute pleasure to work with. From the very first session, she was extremely honest and provided the very best advice with all the information she had, which then lead to the creation of an extremely effective and impactful action plan for our time together. Things ended up working great in the end, as I got into my top MBA choice (Columbia Business School, early decision), and I have Christina to thank for a good portion of my success in the application process. She also works tirelessly for her clients and will make herself available when you need her. She is a very special individual that will be genuinely immersed in your process from start to finish and will go above and beyond the call of duty to maximize your chances of success. Words will not do justice to how much I recommend Christina’s advisory services!

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Christina was incredibly helpful and supportive throughout the MBA application process. It was a longer and more difficult process than I originally anticipated, so it was great to have Christina in my corner. Especially when things got busy at work, it was nice to have Christina keeping me on track for my applications. Christina has a wealth of experience, but her best quality is that she genuinely cares. And Christina works as hard as you do – I was amazed at how willing Christina was to prioritize our work despite the demands of her busy schedule. I would definitely recommend Christina to anyone who is looking for some support and guidance throughout the MBA application process.

Admitted to: HBS, Wharton, Kellogg, U Chicago
Scholarships received: $80K+ scholarships to Wharton, Kellogg, U Chicago

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Accepted: LBS, CBS, Oxford, & HBS (interviewed awaiting decision)

Christina's advice was invaluable navigating a brutally competitive 2020 application cycle. As a candidate coming from a less-recognized undergrad program and a non-MBA feeder industry, Christina helped me expertly position my background and goals to compete for top-tier MBA programs. Her expert opinion also helped decide which programs I ultimately applied for.

Beyond the standard essay brainstorming/editing and interview coaching (she is stellar at both), Christina takes a passionate interest in developing her candidates. She proactively identifies profile weaknesses and recommends specific extra-curriculars and opportunities to address them. She genuinely cares for her clients and champions them, offering support when overwhelmed and a kick in the butt when needed.

Christina is extremely hard-working, organized, and communicative, striking the ideal balance of frequent phone calls while offering space when life gets too busy. She is a perfectionist and pushes her clients to be their best selves through a methodical and highly-personalized approach. I cannot recommend her enough!!!

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With Christina and SBC’s help, I received offers from 5 schools with scholarships totaling over half-million dollars and an admit from HBS, 6 out of 7 of all schools I applied to. Coming from an over-represented population and industry, I felt really thankful for the results, and therefore it's my great pleasure to share my story with Christina and SBC and to hopefully inspire other people with similar goals.

During our free 30-minute free consultation, which Esther arranged immediately after I reached out, Esther's being down-to-earth and transparent won me over. Unlike other consultants, she encouraged me to pursue the very top schools and quickly pointed out my weakness with action items even if I haven't purchased their services. Esther then matched me with Christina based on my background, which was a true blessing for me. Christina and I had an introduction call and she just impressed me with her insights, personalities, and work ethics. Feeling the click that Christina and SBC will help me succeed, I didn't even talk to other consultants and decided to work with Christina on 4 schools – every of which led to an offer with scholarship.

Among all wonderful things about Christina, I want to highlight three aspects that make her a perfect consultant for me - 1) She knows what schools care about and how to most strategically "brand" me. Based on my past experiences, she helped me define my winning strategy from the beginning and gave me actionable advice to strengthen my profile and story in a couple of months leading to the application season. She encouraged me to pursue a few relevant leadership activities, which ended up being the core component of my application. 2) She is incredibly hard-working, has super high standards, and has great attention to detail. In editing my essays and application form responses, she didn’t just switch words or phrases. She’d structurally improve my essays with top-notch writing skills. I was awed every time my essay was returned with a full screen of edits. From months of reading and working through Christina’s feedback on my essay, my writing skills certainly improved as well. 3) She is a genuine person and cares about my applications more than I do. While I worked with her on only 4 schools, she’s always generous in giving me feedback on my other three school applications. Her advice and overall strategy played a critical role in my two other offers even without her direct help. Whenever I felt “slacking”, she always motivated me to bring out my best self.

I also want to call out the team support from SBC in addition to Christina’s amazing work. Lisa, as my flight tester, provided honest and reassuring feedback on my application two months before the submission and left me with plenty of time to act upon. Anthony, the observer of the complimentary Wharton’s TBD, helped us get comfortable with the TBD format and shared useful tips. SBC’s repository of past successful essays, included in the package, was also handy and helpful!

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I cannot say enough about Christina and SBC! She was my biggest advocate throughout the whole application process and believed in me from the start, making me feel confident in my ability to succeed in school.

Professional Aspects
--Before the all in package: I spoke with another consultant, Esther, about my candidacy and to determine who the best consultant to work with would be. Esther was extremely responsive and knowledgeable about the elements of a strong application. She immediately matched me with Christina (it was a perfect match in my opinion!).
--Christina: She has had lots of professional experience in retail and understood the challenges that I faced coming from that industry, which is a less common pre-MBA career. She also completed her MBA at Harvard and understood the rigor of applying to and attending a top program.
--Creating a “brand” and application strategy: Christina quickly helped create a targeted application approach and helped me focus in on the programs that most aligned with my interests and personality. She was so helpful in getting an understanding of the MBA landscape. She also helped create an application that played to my strengths and offset my weaknesses in order to stand out among thousands of competitive applicants.
--Writing essays: Christina’s writing skills are top notch. In fact, I’m pretty sure my grammar and creative writing skills have improved after working with her. She helped me articulate my thoughts, create an outline, and polish my essays so they jumped off the page and reflected my personality.
--Interview prep: We prepped for one interview together and Christina was prepared with a list of questions that school had asked in recent years. After a mock interview, she gave thorough feedback for each question and helped make sure I was as polished and confident as possible going into the interview. She even went the extra mile and sent good luck messages leading up to the interview day!

Personal Aspects
--Christina truly cares about her clients and it shows. She and I frequently spent long hours on the phone weighing the pros and cons of various schools, discussing post-MBA career paths, editing essays, and prepping for interviews. She quickly became one of the first people I talked to about professional developments because of her positive and constructive feedback. She has been a huge force behind my personal and professional development through the application process - both supporting me and giving helpful feedback.
--Christina is full of positive encouragement, but she will also push you because she wants you to have the strongest application possible. I had a long list of things to do leading up to application submission. While I was stressed at times, Christina was always extremely encouraging and built my confidence.
--When choosing a consultant, I recommend thinking carefully about what it is that you are seeking help with. I was looking for someone to help guide me through the whole process, so I decided to go with SBC’s “All In” package. I also wanted someone who understood my industry and the challenges that came with coming from a less common pre-MBA career. Finally, I wanted someone who I would get along well with and would help me grow throughout the application process. Christina was the perfect match in every single way. Our phone calls often went well beyond the application itself, and into areas of personal development. Christina goes above and beyond her responsibilities, and that is largely because she genuinely cares about her clients. She is exactly the kind of person you want in your corner throughout the application process!!

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I reached out to a 3-4 consulting companies early May before taking the GMAT and got turned down by all except SBC. Realize I didn’t have much time to both prep for the tests and write applications for round 1, but I was surprised most consultants will only work with candidates who have on paper a better chance of getting in. Essentially the other consultants told me it would be too much of a “risky” move. I appreciate SBC believing in my potential and working with me despite not having a GMAT score (I ended up getting a 740). Long story short, I got accepted to HBS, Kellogg and Tuck.

I worked with Christina Fu who was an incredible resource and truly helped me learn more about myself. I enjoyed working with her and I think ultimately what made the experience worthwhile was the fact that she got to know me so well. I was looking for a consultant who could help me get organized with all the deadlines / to-dos and to get a second opinion on things, but I think the greatest value-add for me was the self-learning process. Applying to business school is a period of introspection and I would encourage candidates to find a consultant like Christina who can help them learn about their career paths, future goals, personal qualities etc.

I highly recommend Christina and SBC. In less than 4 months I was able to take the GMAT / prepare applications and I don’t think I would have been able to do that without Christina’s help.

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After having calls with most of the major consulting firms, I decided to work with Christina from SBC. Most of the other consultants I had met always told me how I was going to get into every top school right from the beginning without having an understanding of my profile. Christina was the only one to immediately point out specific key strengths as well as potential weaknesses and ideas to address them, as well as being realistic about my opportunities. This was exactly what I was looking for.
Working with Christina proved to be a pleasure from the start. Two words that come to mind when thinking about her are ORGANIZATION and DETAILS. Her approach is very structured, comprehensive and well thought-out, and her ability to focus on even the smallest details, strong points, and potential flaws is overwhelming (in a good way of course!). If there is ANY possibility any part of your application might have a positive or negative effect on your assessment she WILL find it, point it out and work with you to highlight or address it. Relentlessly.
On top of this, Christina has an especial ability to retain every single piece of information you provide and bring it up and find ways to use it (even after a very long time). She really tries to get to know you as best as possible and might even bring up a story or a small detail you told her months ago and hadn´t even thought of yourself to help you prove an important point in your essays or interviews! She really takes your application more seriously than you do...
Her understanding of all schools is mind-blowing (although she went to HBS I honestly think she has attended every MBA program), and she will use this knowledge to point out those parts of you that best fit each school and will explain how and why they are a good fit, providing really valuable advice. This is very helpful to understand what schools you should target too.
Personally (having even met her in person) she is an extremely nice and respectful person, and everything about her is completely genuine. She really cares for you and will do everything she can to maximize your opportunities. If you want to truly give your MBA applications your best shot, she is the only option!
I got accepted into my top 2 schools: HBS and Wharton/Lauder. I cannot recommend her services enough, I would give her 6 out of 5 stars!

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Christina was the guiding light that I didn't know I needed. She took out all the stress and uncertainty from planning by clearly outlining the entire process, so I knew exactly how much work I should be putting in, and why.

She also helped me completely re-think and transform my story. My candidate profile that I submitted is completely unrecognizable from a draft that I would have put together on my own!

Most importantly, Christina truly brought out the best in me. I honestly don’t think that I’ve worked this purposefully or diligently on a project in a very long time!

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SBC is truly amazing! Christina is a fantastic MBA consultant who truly cares about the success of her clients. With Christina’s professional advice and dedication, I received an offer from Wharton, CBS with a full tuition scholarship, Yale SOM with $100K scholarship, and Kellogg’s MMM program with $40K scholarship.

Christina not only guided me with creating an application strategy and timeline, but also helped provide me with useful tips for each school that I applied to. She is very direct and will tell you her honest, professional opinion about your application package. This was a common characteristic within the SBC team which I noticed and greatly appreciated. For example, when speaking with some other consulting agencies, they were very general and told me that my application looked good and that they could definitely help me make it even stronger. On the other hand, the SBC team was very honest and told me that while my application had potential to be very strong, at the time it lacked focus and some parts were confusing. This was very helpful for me to understand the weak parts of my application and how to improve them. Christina was also great with pushing me to stay on my timeline track!

In summary, I decided to choose SBC for 2 main reasons : 1) I appreciated the constructive criticism and detailed feedback and 2) Sarah on the SBC team matched me to Christina who I had a chance to speak with before working together, and we connected very well and had some similar interests as well.

SBC also has many helpful tips with the application and interview process. For example, SBC helps run a “flight test” where a former AdCom officer can review and provide feedback on a final application after you have worked with your consultant on it. Furthermore, the team-based mock interview simulation was very helpful and gave me a good idea of what to expect during Wharton’s interview. SBC has lots of admissions officer intel in-house, which is very resourceful!

Ultimately, it was really a pleasure working with Christina. I highly recommend her as a MBA consultant. She is very motivated and never gives up on her client. I still remember her working with me on a tight timeline and emailing me at 5am in the morning to answer my questions. Even after receiving acceptance notifications from the school, she will call me to congratulate me and help answer additional questions!

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