COMPASS TO COLLEGE

"Ms. Reichelstein provided valuable guidance and feedback, pushing me to think more deeply about my experiences and how they could be used to tell a compelling narrative. Whether it was brainstorming ideas, outlining my essay, revising/making edits, she was there to provide support. She was not afraid to be critical and didn't really sugarcoat feedback. Although critical feedback sometimes can be hard to hear, with writing as important as college essays, it was imperative to fine-tuning my language, structure and narrative. Ms. Reichelstein was very good at assigning me work and encouraging me to meet deadlines. I really appreciate her help and support with my college applications and am proud of my work with her."

"Marci is incredible and we give her our highest recommendation.  She is delightful to work with and helped transform our stressful college application process into a workable, organized activity. Starting early is key to Marci helping get your teen to the next level.  Starting when Annie was a freshman, Marci helped us select the right classes in school, guided us to broaden Annie’s world by looking at interesting enrichment programs outside of school, and found ways to sharpen Annie’s leadership opportunities. Wading through college application essays and questions is a landmine.  Annie is an excellent writer in school.  But composing a college application essay is an art form unto itself. Marci knows this art form. Probably her greatest asset is her ability to coach great essays out of her students.  She is an excellent editor whose suggestions are always spot on. What more can we say? Marci is smart, kind, always supportive, and most importantly, really knows her stuff.  Thank you, Marci, for getting our daughter into Stanford - her dream school. Joanne, Mark, & Annie AKA: Team Annie!"

"We felt truly blessed to have Marci by our side throughout the application process for both our kids. We were also fortunate to get the out come of the journey to be simply awesome. UC Berkeley & UCLA. They were exactly what our kids were aspiring for. This would not have been possible without Marci. Throughout the process, we loved the combination of encouragement, firmness & inspiration that Marci always brought to the interactions. I would always see my kids come out more motivated to strive for the best outcome, after there calls with Marci. We recommend Marci's guidance whole heatedly."

"Hi Marci By now you may have already heard the happy tidings - Our student has been admitted to UCLA, Scipps and UC Berkeley, among others. We are all so delighted and at a loss of words to express our gratitude to you. Many thanks for guiding our student with care and concern throughout this process. We would like to say - a Big Thanks for all that you did, your deep care and all the thoughtfulness and thoroughness through this entire process. For your motivation, nudges - subtle and not so subtle and lots more. A big Thanks to you for being her Coach and Guide Warm Regards"

"We hear many stories that some service providers are preying on desperate high school students and parents looking for help. "Compass To College" and its owner "Marci Reichelstien" are perfect examples of that and here is why: We hired Marci to help my son with his college admissions. We enrolled him in her Full Service Package. The name itself is misleading. It is called "Full Service" but is $8,890 for 25 hours which translates close to $400 per hour. It also requires an upfront $2,000 retainer payment. Since she lives on Stanford campus and charges top dollar, we thought that this was a premium service and we really had high expectations accordingly. We had our first meeting and she committed to send us some deliverables within a week. Weeks went by and nothing was delivered. We sent several reminder emails and phone calls. After repeated reminders, she sent us a bunch of standard templates including many that my son doesn't have a chance to get in or are irrelevant. She then charges 1.5 hours (for what was actually only 1 hour and 10 minutes) for the meeting and another 1.5 hours for sending standard templates. So, the total cost of the first meeting was $1,200. After the above experience of broken promises and excuses, I sent her an email and called her expressing our concerns. She promised that it won't happen again and we wanted to give it a try a bit longer. We then had the second meeting to discuss college selection and to identify extracurricular activities for the next summer. Since Marci sent us standard templates before, I asked her to identify 2-3 activities that my son has a fair chance to get in along with a list of colleges with a certain profile. She committed to delivering them during the early part of the next week. As before, weeks had gone by and nothing was delivered. That is when I decided to pull the plug. She charged another hour for the second meeting which is another $400. So, we lost valuable time and $1,600 for nothing. There is literally nothing she did for us other than sending some standard templates that were of no use to us. She gets very creative in finding excuses to cover up broken promises. Another thing she seems to be doing behind the scene is outsourcing the work such as reviewing essays to someone else in NY. She charges $400 per hour and she is probably paying someone else a lot less and pocketing the rest. You would expect premium service from a person who charges $400 per hour but this was a total disaster. She just walked away with $1,600 for nothing. I asked her to refund half of $1,600 since she couldn't deliver on her commitments, but she declined to do so. Please don't get trapped with her sweet talk. She is unethical, incapable, and irresponsible. We decide to drop her because of her incompetence and broken promises. She should return all the money instead of walking away with $1,600 for 4 hours of broken promises. This is "Compass to Nowhere", You don't want to put your child's bright future in Ms. Reichelstien's hands."