Andrea Van Niekerk

Andrea Van Niekerk is an independent college admission counselor who has worked with College Goals since 2009, serving clients across the United States and around the world through in-person meetings, email and video conferencing. College Goals was founded by a former Dean at Brown University, where Andrea spent a decade in the Admission Office before returning to Palo Alto, California, to launch her independent consulting career. She brings extensive experience evaluating applicants from across the country and internationally, with particular expertise in Africa and Europe, combined with deep knowledge of selective university admissions processes gained from her years working inside a highly competitive Ivy League institution.?

At Brown University from 1999 to 2009, Andrea served as Associate Director of Admission, where she evaluated applications from students worldwide, with special focus on Africa and Europe. Her responsibilities extended beyond application review to include serving as a freshman and sophomore advisor, working as a recruitment travel coordinator, coordinating a program for older students resuming their educations, helping to redesign the university's admissions publications, and directing an initiative to increase the presence of lower-income students on campus. These varied roles provided her with a comprehensive understanding of university operations, student support systems and equity initiatives in higher education. Before her work at Brown, she lived and worked in southern Africa for two years with a consulting firm focused on community-based economic development around land reform initiatives, and worked as an editor while raising three children.?

Andrea holds a Master of Arts in Library and Information Science with a focus on Archival Administration from Dominican University in Illinois, a Master of Arts in African History from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in History also from the University of the Witwatersrand. Originally from South Africa, she first arrived in California in the late 1980s after completing her degrees in Johannesburg, eventually settling in Rhode Island during her Brown University years before returning to Palo Alto in 2009. Her international background, academic training in historical research and information science, and extensive admissions experience position her to guide students through the complex college application process with a global perspective and institutional insight.?