Twins!

Applying to College
1

<p>I'm posting here for a little advice and mainly to find out if anyone's been through something like this before or has a few thoughts.</p>

<p>I'm an International applicant to some of the top schools in the US (like most on this site), MIT, Stanford and the like form my reaches.
My situation is slightly unique in that, as my user name suggests, I'm a twin, and therefore, my brother will also be applying to pretty much the same colleges this year.</p>

<p>Throughout our time in school, we've shown a tendency, conscious or unconscious to be interested in the same things. My brother normally ranks 1st, me 3rd, and although we are distinct people in our approach to many things, our prospective majors are similiar, and the things we're naturally good at seem to be much the same.</p>

<p>What I'd like advice on is how much of an effect our being twins will have upon our applications. We'll definitely need financial aid as they're to be two of us in college at the same time, and being Internationals, our choice of colleges is therefore already limited to those that are Need-Blind or have offered amounts of financial aid in the past.</p>

<p>Our stats (not in detail follow, I'd like to just state that I'm not asking for chances or anything similiar, what I'd appreciate receiving is any information or ideas that people may have on the effect that our twinhood will have.)
We'll be probably the only people from our High School applying to the top colleges in the US, there might be one or two more.</p>

<p>Stats: (Mine)</p>

<p>System of Education: ISC / ICSE (Its an Indian Board of education)
Percentage: 93 % approx
Rank: 3
SAT scores: 2330 (CR: 800, M:730, W: 800)
SAT II: Math IIC: 800
Chemistry: 800
English Literature: 770
Biology, Physics: yet to be done.</p>

<p>Stats: (Twin's)</p>

<p>Percentage: 97% approx
Rank: 1
SAT Scores: 2360 (CR: 800, M: 780, W: 780)
SAT II: Math IIC: 800
Chemistry: 800
English Literature: 800
Biology, Physics: yet to be done.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: </p>

<p>Well the system of EC's in our school/country varies quite considerably from the system followed in the US, particularly with regard to clubs etc.</p>

<p>For us, our quantitative EC's (Which normally involve participation as school representatives in National/Inter-national events) are as follows:</p>

<p>Debate: A number of National and International Events, Best Speaker Awards, etc, spanning 2-3 years. Again we form part of the same team, so we have largely attended the same events. My twin's the School Debate captain.
Quiz: Again, a very large number of National and International Events (about 40-50), Members of the same team. Represented our school for 4 years now. I'm the school Quiz Captain.
Drama: We've both acted in 3-4 plays, one of which won a national competition.
Organisation: It sounds a bit like a club or something that exists only for the purpose of college admissions, but we've played an integral role in the organisation of school events, fundraisers, charity auctions etc. for the past 2-3 years.
School Government: We're both House Captains.
Film: We've been making a Documentary/Film about our school over the past few months.
As I said earlier, this isn't a What are my Chances post, so I'll just end that list there.</p>

<p>What we're basically asking is, will our being twins affect our admission chances, and would it be advisable to apply SCEA to different colleges? Another request is for any advice on Safeties/Matches that offer Fin. Aid to Internationals. </p>

<p>Our prospective majors: Engineering, Int'l Relations/Anything literary.</p>

2

<p>your situation is definitely unique, especially with the superior credentials from both of you. here's what i recommend you to do</p>

<p>both apply ED to Princeton (need blind, 100% need). together write a heartfelt essay, about your being twins, and add other things that show how you two define yourselves. show your strengths, and make sure you show your love for Princeton. you should both get in then.</p>

<p>EDIT: i guess an important question to ask is whether you two want to attend the same college</p>

3

<p>I'm an identical twin who had a somewhat similar situtation to you in that my brother and I shared the same stats and activites along with ECs. Also, we both ranked at the very top of the class. However, we wanted to apply to different schools largely and only ended up applying to 3 that were the same. Also, our situation was different in that we are not internationals. So take this information with as much relevance you think it has.</p>

<p>But out of the three schools my brother and I applied to, we received identical results. I didn't know if it was luck, careful readings of our applications, or simply the schools recognizing we were twins and thinking it unfair to give differennt results.</p>

<p>As far as finaid, I don't know the story with internationals, but usually, if you are going to get finaid, your parents having twins means more money for whatever reason, even more than simply having two kids going to college.</p>

4

<p>I would disagree with Bobert_McCloud -- do NOT write your essay together. They want to evaluate each of you as individuals and make sure that both of you are good writers, and both of you have good reasons to want to go to Princeton / MIT / wherever and are a good fit for the school.</p>

<p>Here's a possibility -- if you both end up having your hearts set on two different schools (even if your longer lists are similar), apply ED/EA separately, so that you'll be evaluated first as individuals at separate schools.</p>

5

<p>peter_parker brings up a valid point about finances as most schools are not need blind to international students so yes, your parents being able to pay for both of you will put you both in a better position.</p>

<p>Also because the pool of international applicants are so large and the number of acceptances given is so small you would not only be competing against the entire pool of international applicants but competing against each other. Because of your situation, I think you would be better served by not applying to all of the same schools and risk knocking each other out of the box.</p>

6

<p>Identical twin here. Even though you have the same interests I recommend two different schools. There are lots of choices out there. It's not like there is one school for your prospective majors. College is a time to define and/or redefine yourself...strike out on your own..your list of ecs reads "we .... we...." At some point as adults (trust me on this one) you will be individuals. You will know people who have no idea you are a twin...and who don't categorize you that way....take this opportunity to spread out a bit...you won't regret it.</p>

7

<p>This is the time to define yourself apart from being a "twin". I would suggest applying to different schools and making your own, personal mark on the world. But if you both have the same dream college, I don't think it would make sense to defer your dream to apply elsewhere; you both should still apply.</p>

8

<p>veggiedog, totally agree...it didn't seem to me that the OP and his brother had one dream school but if so then ignore my push to go to separate schools..</p>

9

<p>hhahaha here is something intresting, why dont you make your essays, dual essays. make its like the ying yang. lol one is good, the other is evil.</p>

10

<p>Identical twin here. I am still very close to my brother. But my brother and I decided NOT to go to school together. We both decided it would help further our own identities if we branched out. </p>

<p>Note that I still saw my brother quite a bit - we both competed in Div. 1 athletics and we competed against each other often - all the way through the conference and NCAA championships. So I was still fairly connected to him. </p>

<p>But in the end I think it was a very wise decision to go to a different school. I made friends independent from my brother (something high school didn't really support), felt less competitive and free to do my own academic thing, and even ended up mastering a different athletic event than I would have expected because I was not stuck training intensely with him every day. </p>

<p>I would strongly look at different schools.</p>

11

<p>Another twin here. My sister and I applied to three of the same colleges, but in the end, we decided we needed to be independent, so I am going to end up at MIT next year and she will be at Stanford (Different coasts!)</p>