About College Admissions

Each year, the competition for admission to strong and selective American colleges and universities becomes more intense and the colleges' search for talented applicants becomes more aggressive. The most selective colleges accept from 7-17% of their highly qualified applicants, and since increasing numbers of students are applying, the increase in applicants has a significant effect on colleges' selectivity factors.

No doubt you have heard the statistics about the annual rise in the number of college applicants, and the fact that the highly selective colleges and universities are not increasing their enrollment - in fact, the enrollment has dropped a little at many of them, compared to twenty years ago.

You have probably seen the growing flood of anxiety-raising books and articles, such as The Truth About Getting In, The Gatekeepers, and Making it Into a Top College.

Perhaps you have also read about the increase in college students seeking counseling for stress, or the rise in dropout and transfer rates. The consequences of merely getting in to a big-name school rather than succeeding at the right school are enormous - as life changing as the college experience itself.

The cost of education climbs; the number of students dropping out or transferring increases; the stress level of students in college, and of college applicants and their families, is at an all-time high. Consequently, most of the excellent colleges have had to increase their psychological services offerings.

Joyce Reed, Founder and Director of College Goals, LLC and a former college dean, and Andrea van Niekerk, former advisor to college freshman and sophomores, have intimate experience with what happens to many students after they get into college. Some have made wise decisions and are well-prepared personally as well as academically to take full advantage of the tremendous range of opportunities available to them on any college campus. But many are not. They have made choices and decisions based on erroneous self-interpretation and mistaken expectations . . . while many simply find themselves at the wrong school because they did not know how to look at colleges, how to evaluate the institutions (or themselves), or how to present themselves appropriately.

American colleges and universities place great emphasis on how an applicant balances personal interests and achievements while maintaining the strongest possible academic record and achieving honors in a range of areas. Great grades and test scores are not enough; colleges are interested in students' various extra-curricular strengths, interests and abilities, their values, goals and motivations, as well as their academic record.

The college search and application process is extensive, time-consuming, personally challenging for each student and family, and, paradoxically, it is also deeply rewarding. College Goals' purpose is to make sure that our students understand and appreciate the choices they make, successfully navigate the application process, and relish the amazing opportunities ahead of them.