How I Got to College: Colleen Mellinger
This past spring, U.S. News visited La Jolla High School in the San Diego Unified School District to ask several seniors who had recently gone through the college application process and were then weighing their options for lessons learned along the way -- and their best tips for high school students just getting started.
Set in a postcard-perfect seaside community, La Jolla High is a comprehensive high school serving about 1,650 students. Because of the district's emphasis on school choice, students from an array of San Diego neighborhoods attend La Jolla.
The school provides Advanced Placement courses in 21 curricular areas; 98 percent of students graduate, on average, and 70 percent go on to four-year colleges (about 22 percent go to a two-year school). White students comprise 56 percent of the student body, with Hispanics, Asians and African-Americans accounting for most of the rest.
In hopes of becoming a university physics professor, Colleen Mellinger will study chemical physics at the University of California--San Diego. Although UCSD is close to home, Mellinger is still getting used to Southern California, having moved to La Jolla from Missouri before her senior year.
She applied to schools where she would be able to do "a lot" of undergraduate research, beginning freshman year. "I also wanted to play college tennis," she says.
With interests ranging from sports to science competitions and community service, she highlighted herself as well-rounded in her applications. Mellinger also got into the University of California--Berkeley, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and the University of Tulsa. She visited several colleges and "fell in love" with UCSD.
GPA: 3.9 unweighted
SAT/ACT scores: 760 math; 600 critical reading; 700 writing/30 composite
Extracurriculars: Tennis team captain, archery team captain, Science Olympiad, technology club, academic team, volunteer with the Red Cross
Essay: On being an inquisitive knowledge junkie: "Why? That's the question I always ask myself. Why do people do what they do? Why do magnets stick together? Why does 'knife' start with a 'k'?"
Stressor: Applying to college at the same time she was getting adjusted to a new school and new part of the country.
Off the list: Stanford University. After visiting, "I didn't think it would be a good fit for me. I wanted more balance between academics and social."
Do-over: She would have started earlier. "It all came so fast."
Need for structure: Applying to colleges is a lesson in organization. "I'm very much of a list person," she says.
Notable step: She took the SAT four times and the ACT three times. Was it overkill? Her overall scores didn't rise by a lot, but she was pleased by her improvement in various sections.
Advice: Anything you do, write it down so you can remember later to reference it on applications. She had volunteered to help clean up in Joplin, Missouri, after a tornado hit, but nearly forgot to say so.
This story is excerpted from the U.S. News "Best Colleges 2015" guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.
