Andrea van Niekerk, Former Admissions Officer at Brown University

Andrea van Niekerk served on the Board of Admission at Brown University, where she held the position of Associate Director of Admission from 1999 to 2009. Each year she evaluated and presented thousands of applications to the admission committee, including both American and international applicants. She traveled extensively on the university’s behalf, talking to students and their parents across the United States, as well as in Europe and Africa. During her years at Brown, she coordinated the university’s recruitment travel, oversaw a major revision of its admission publications, coordinated its program for older students resuming their educations, and directed an initiative to increase the presence of lower-income students on campus. She also worked as an academic advisor to freshman and sophomore students. She recently moved to Stanford, CA, where she works as an independent college counselor. She hails from South Africa and has lived in the United States since 1987. She holds master’s degrees in both History and Library and Information Science.

Kit Muller, Former Admissions Counselor at Harvard University

Kit Muller has over twenty years of experience in college admissions. After graduating from Stanford University (B.A. Journalism and Political Science), she spent several years as an admissions counselor for Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges. She earned a Master's degree (M.Ed.) at Harvard Graduate School of Education, then returned to her native California to become the Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions at University of San Diego, where she also held the titles of Director of International Admissions and Director of Transfer Admissions. She has been an independent counselor for many years, helping students (including her two children) through their college application process. In addition, she worked as a speechwriter for a U.S. congressman in Washington, D.C, served in the Intelligence division of the U.S. Navy, and does freelance writing. Ms. Muller has lived in Wellington, New Zealand as a high school AFS exchange student; Damascus, Syria with the UN; and Islamabad, Pakistan with the State Department; as well as every corner of the U.S. She has traveled widely in Asia, Europe and the Middle East meeting and interviewing high school and college students.

Marilyn Neril, Current Admissions Reader at a selective California university

Marilyn has been an external reader for eight years for a highly selective California university, where she has read over 5,000 applications for Freshman admission. As a college advisor since 1995, she has worked with a broad group of multilingual students applying to leading public and private institutions across the country. As the first Director of College Planning for a private high school (JCHS in San Francisco), she initiated and developed the current program. Marilyn is a National Certified Counselor and has a Certificate in College Admissions Counseling from University of California Berkeley Extension. She holds a B.A. from the University of Illinois, an M.Ed. from Boston University and an M.S. in Counseling from San Francisco State University.

Iris Schrey, Current Admissions Reader at a selective private Chicago university

Iris Schrey has been an Admissions Reader for one of the most selective private universities in the Chicago metro (and the country) for several years. She has been an Advanced Placement teacher and a College Counselor at Jones College Prep, a selective magnet school in Chicago. Additionally, she has been the Midwest Coordinator for the College Board’s MyRoad and has evaluated the essay section for the SAT. She currently is a part time counselor at Triton College. Iris is fluent in Spanish and has given workshops on Financial Aid including the FAFSA and CSS Profile. She is a member of H.E.C.A, NACAC (where she has been a delegate and Chaired the NACAC College Fair in Chicago for five years), a member and Executive Board member of IACAC and a Certified Educational Planner. She holds a B.A. in Spanish Secondary Education and an M.A. in Secondary Guidance and Counseling, both at Northeastern Illinois University.