Should Twins Attend The Same College?

If it weren't for the special connection that bounds most twins together, the decision of whether to attend the same college would be an easy one. Not only do twins applying to the same selective university risk hurting their chances (for schools typically take both or none), but they also might detract from each other's dating opportunities, according to a recent Huffington Post article.

The Huff Post profiled identical twins Gabby and Allie Buyers, juniors at the University of Texas in Austin, and the effect their shared DNA/appearance has had on their romantic lives.

"We usually get that we're a little intimidating to come up to both of us because sometimes guys will be like, 'It's so hard,'" Gabby and then Allie told the Huff Post. "'How do I choose between one of you?' Or 'How can I get one of you alone?' since we are together all the time."

The dilemma sometimes even has the opposite effect. Because they have similar tastes, they might lock on to the same man.

"That is a bit of a challenge because we do have the same taste in guys," Allie said. "And so sometimes it might be a fight where 'I saw him first, he's mine!'"

Back in 2008, then President George Bush, who once advised his twin daughters to attend separate colleges, imparted the same wisdom to a pair he met at a fundraiser. They followed his advice, choosing to split between the University of Buffalo and Hobart College, USA Today reported.

Though some colleges actually offer twin and triplet scholarships, popular wisdom dictates that twins should avoid applying to the same prestigious univerisities if they aren't both extremely strong candidates (and if they aren't the Winklevoss twins).

"Other people were applying to Harvard from our school," Olivia Rogan of Dallas explained of her decision to rescind her application to Harvard in 2008 because her triplet brother was also applying (she had already gotten into Yale and the other triplet had gotten into UPenn while the brother hadn't gotten into any Ivy League schools yet, the New York Times reported). "and it's not like Harvard was going to take five people. Sometimes it only takes one or two. I knew colleges place this huge emphasis on geographical diversity. So were they really going to take two people from the exact same household?"