The College Goals Team

ANDREA VAN NIEKERK, College Admissions Consultant
  • Associate Director of Admissions, Brown University
  • 10 years experience in college admissions
  • Focus on international as well as American applicants
  • Extensive admissions experience in the U.S., Asia, Africa, Europe, Mid- East
  • Parent of 2 college students and 1 high school junior

I arrived in the United States from South Africa in 1987 holding Master's degrees in both History and Library and Information Science. For ten years I served as Associate Director of Admission at Brown University, where each season I evaluated and presented thousands of prospective students to the admission committee. I left Brown to join my family in northern California where my husband is a professor of history at Stanford, and to work as a personal consultant with students and families involved in their higher education search and college application process.

During my decade in Brown's Office of Admission, I evaluated applications from almost every corner of the USA, as well as Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. I also traveled extensively to many of those same places on the University's behalf to talk with students, parents and educators. During many wonderful years at Brown, I also coordinated a program for older students resuming their educations, and directed an initiative to increase the presence of lower-income students on campus. Finally, I worked as academic advisor to freshman and sophomore students, a task that cast an interesting perspective on the admission process.

And last, but certainly not least, I am the mother of a first-year and a third-year college student and a high school junior.

I therefore bring to private counseling many years of experience in American higher education, an international perspective, and an unusual knowledge of the nuts and bolts of the college admission process. But more importantly, I believe my professional background is grounded by common sense, pragmatism, good humor, and empathy for both the stresses of teenagers' lives and the concerns shouldered by their parents. Even in the drama of high school life, the college search represents an exceptionally turbulent and exciting time. It should be intellectually challenging but also fun, adventuresome but also practical. My role is to guide and support my students to identify and develop personal goals for college and for their life beyond, and to work hard to help them achieve these goals.