Hard Work Paid Off

Class of 2026 Seniors Who Got Into Their Dream College

Photos by Kate Bascom / Maclay Andalusian

As the end of the 2025-26 school year quickly comes to a close, our 2026 seniors are starting to hear back from the colleges they applied to and are making the big decision. After many tutoring sessions, classes and endless extracurricular activities, seniors are finally finding out if their hard work has paid off. Let’s take a look at some seniors who have gotten into their dream schools. 

With the release of Davidson college’s early decision one results on Dec. 13, senior Sophie Lombard found out that she got accepted to her dream college. Early decision is a binding application, usually assigned for students first-choice college, saying that if admitted, students commit to go to that school no matter where else they get in. Without any other college in mind, Lombard applied to Davidson early decision, hoping that her hard work would have paid off. 

“I was so excited [when I got in],” Lombard said. “I was in my bedroom with my family and I opened the letter and when I saw that I was accepted I freaked out and my mom and dad had party poppers that were Davidson colors.” 

Every year, the University of Auburn releases their early action results in a series of multiple rounds. This year, their decision letters for early action were released in mid-October, mid-November, mid-December and early March. For some seniors, they found out that they were accepted to be an Auburn Tiger in one of these rounds. One of these seniors was Lucy May, who found out that she got into her dream school and soon after committed to going there. 

“I wanted to go to Auburn because both my parents went there and I grew up surrounded by the community and loving it,” May said. “I was so excited [to get in]. I found out after my soccer game and I celebrated with my teammates” 

Traveling alongside Lombard to start their new chapter in North Carolina is senior Ella Tobe who found out recently that she got accepted to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. UNC Chapel Hill released their early-action admissions on Dec. 20 for in-state applicants and Feb. 10 for everyone else. 

“I was very excited to get into UNC Chapel Hill,” Tobe said. “It was my dream college because it is ranked really highly in academics and research and it also has such a pretty college.” 

While some students prefer to stay within driving distance from home, others have decided to take their life to a whole new chapter far from home. Seniors Grier DeRosier and Belen Rambana decided to move their life to the Golden State of California. DeRosier got into the University of South California (USC) and Rambana got accepted at Pepperdine University. 

“When I got in I was really excited and I started crying,” Derosier said. “I liked the idea of going really far away and I can make a lot of new friends in California.” 

Both colleges are located in Los Angeles, which is about a six hour flight and a 32 hour drive. USC early action results were released in mid-January, which is when DeRosier received her admission and soon after committed to go. Similarly, Pepperdine released their early-action results Jan. 10 and that is when Rambana found out she got into her dream college. While she has not fully committed to the college, over the long weekend, she visited the campus and quickly fell in love. 

“I liked the location that [Pepperdine] was in,” Rambana said. “I was so happy [to get in] because I worked really hard to achieve my goal of getting in.” 

Along with seniors announcing getting into their college through friends or social media, some of our seniors have gone above and beyond by signing to play athletics while in college. Senior Addison Davis signed on Monday, Dec. 8 to play beach volleyball at Berry College, alongside her, senior Alana Wilson signed to continue her track career at Boston College. On Wednesday, Feb. 8, seniors Wyatt Long and Abram Wildrick signed to continue their football career in college; Wildrick signed to play at Missouri S&T and Long signed to play at LaGrange College. 

“I think the things that helped me achieve my goal the most were definitely grades and having a rigorous course schedule and taking advanced courses and excelling in those,” Lombard said. “Second was extracurricular activities and clubs, participating in different clubs and getting leadership roles especially in community service where you can give back to the community.” 

While more and more seniors receive their admissions to colleges, we will begin to see which ones have gotten into their dream college and what commitments they make.