TITLE: GOALS This essay is about goals, how to reach them, and why it is important to reach your goals.

Everyone has goals they want to achieve. Reaching these goals will help you later in life. In a positive form, perfectionism can provide the driving energy which leads to great achievement. The meticulous attention to detail necessary for scientific investigation, the commitment which pushes composers to keep working until the music realises the glorious sounds playing in the imagination, and the persistence which keeps great artists at their easels until their creation matches their conception …

…to the anxiety and expectations. Unless the match between institutions and students is truly a good one, both are likely to be disappointed. Gifted and talented (GT) students often have problems beyond those of most other students who consider college and career choices. A systematic, collaborative approach is needed whereby students learn that college planning is part of life career development; it need not be a finite event that begins and ends mysteriously or arbitrarily.