On May 21, 2025, Aliso Niguel’s Associated Student Body hosted their annual senior signing day during wolverine. This event is similar to the signing day in November, however, this event is for all seniors who have already committed to a college, not just the athletes.
To start the day, all seniors wore sweatshirts, shirts, or any other clothing that represents the college they plan to attend next fall.
This year in particular has proved to be one of the most difficult years in terms of college acceptance for highschool seniors due to the increased number of applications and new test-optional policies that allow for more students to go to more prestigious schools. However, this did not stop Aliso seniors from getting accepted into a wide variety of colleges.
Similar to previous years, the most applied to schools at Aliso Niguel were the Universities of California (UCs), specifically, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Irvine, and Santa Cruz. This year the UC’s received 236 applications from Aliso and accepted 166. At this point, 78 seniors were recognized for their acceptance. This year, UCLA had the most applications, over 100,000. The acceptance rate this year was a mere 8.6%, compared to last year’s 9%. However, this didn’t stop Ava Adibi (12), Emily Trapp (12), Madeleine Nguyen (12), Maya Voss (12), Carina Leo (12) and Maya Jackson (12).
Similar to the UC’s, the California State Colleges also received a lot of applications from Aliso seniors. Cal State Fullerton accepted 57 applicants, Nadia Taraman (12), Tyler Speidel (12) and Reagan Carter have already commited to CSUF. 223 people applied to San Diego State University, of which Makiah Reeve (12), Sierra Yoon (12), Jenna Jund (12) and Rubita Karimi (12) got in. Seven students have already committed to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo: Audrey Tackett (12), Arushi Verma (12), Emma Brubaker (12), Emma Modeer (12), Danielle Halphide (12), Mia Ross (12) and Zane Aossey (12).
A portion of seniors at Aliso wanted to advance their education beyond the California collegiate system. Seniors at Aliso have been accepted to over ten states aside from California. Arizona State University accepted 51 students, while Boise State University accepted 34 seniors. States such as Oregon, Texas, and Colorado have at least two different colleges where a significant amount of seniors have already committed to.
University of Oregon commit, Olivia Carbajal (12), says, “I visit Oregon almost every summer, so I knew I wanted to spend more time up there and UO is great for my intended major.”
Community College has become a great option for Aliso’s soon to be graduates as well. The majority of community colleges offer a honors program, which can help students prepare for the rigor of college and clearly demonstrate to admission officers that they are more prepared than any other student trying to get into top-tier colleges. Additionally, it heavily increases the chances of getting accepted into colleges with a low acceptance rate. UCLA’s normal acceptance rate is 8.6%, however with the TAG program it goes up to 28%.
No matter what college Aliso seniors attend, they have played a huge role in shaping Aliso Niguel’s Wolverine identity.
