College Copycats

I could go on and on about how thrilled I am that my younger sister will be attending Colby College, my alma mater, next fall. I absolutely loved my four years there and know that she will have a wonderful experience as well.

During my time at Colby, there were many sibling sets on campus and even some twins. As a result, learning that my sister would follow in my footsteps seemed natural, but apparently this trend stretches beyond Colby’s campus. New research indicates that “one-fifth of younger siblings go to the same college as their older siblings,” study author Joshua Goodman of the Harvard Kennedy School explains.  

Even if siblings don’t attend the same college as one another, younger siblings are more likely to enroll in any four-year institution if their older sibling does so, the study found when controlling for grades and scores. Plus, if an older sibling attends a selective college, younger siblings are even more likely to do just that.

I think, as the article and some commenters pointed out, a lot of this trend has to simply do with younger siblings learning more about schools they may have not considered otherwise. Having someone at home who is constantly speaking highly of a particular institution is the best advertising a college can ask for, and it certainly pays off in many cases.