35 sets of twins enroll at Temple
One set of triplets also on campus
Philadelphia Inquirer
Matt Brusko, one in a set of triplets, was looking to attend a different college from his siblings.
“I’ve been around them my whole life,” said Matt, 18, of Emmaus, Lehigh County. “I kind of wanted to get away from them.”
But it didn’t work out that way.
He will be living across the hall from his sister, Liz, at Temple University, where both moved in Wednesday as freshmen and plan to study business.
They are far from unusual.
Temple boasted in a tweet last week that 35 sets of twins — and one full set of triplets — are among the incoming freshman class and new transfer students. That’s nearly 1.5 percent of the 5,000 new students.
Temple counts the Bruskos as twins because their third sibling, Nick, is at Penn State.
The number of twins at Temple has been growing. In 2013, the first year Temple began keeping the statistic, 14 sets were in the class. By last year, that number had doubled.
Temple officials aren’t sure what’s causing the increase. But nationally over the last four decades, the number of fraternal-twin births nearly doubled, while triplet and higher multiple births quadrupled, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The reasons are that more women have used infertility treatments and more have delayed childbearing. The increase at Temple correlates with a surge in twin births nationally during the late 1990s.
While some twins want to stay together, others opt to experience college apart, said Nancy L. Segal, a developmental psychology professor at California State University, Fullerton, and director of the Twin Study Center.
“We don’t know what really drives those decisions,” Ms. Segal said. “This is a very uncharted area.”
There’s no best answer, she said: “It depends on the pair.” Sometimes career interests, academic records or sports prowess will lead them to different institutions.
Two of Joe and Beth Glennon’s triplets — Liam and Seamus — are among Temple freshmen this year, but their brother, Richie, is going to Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa., where he will run on the cross-country and track teams and study computer science in a smaller liberal-arts setting.
The Glennons, of Haddonfield, N.J., introduced their sons to Temple years ago, when Joe began teaching there. In 2013 he was hired full time as an assistant professor in the department of advertising. The family went to basketball games and a gymnastics clinic.
“In sixth grade, we started brainwashing them,” said Beth Glennon, a high school math teacher.
But when it came time to select colleges, the Glennons, both graduates of St. Joseph’s University, made clear to their sons that the choice was theirs, even though as a Temple employee, Joe gets free tuition for his children. Out-of-state Temple tuition runs $28,176 annually.
“We’ve always been making sure that their academics and sports are what’s right for them, not what’s the most convenient for us or a package,” Beth said. “They’re not a package.”
Liam, 18, said the choice was easy for him.
“The brainwashing wasn’t really a factor,” he said. “It’s more like we’re just taking part in this community that our dad has been a part of. It’s a fun school, a fun community.”
The Glennons’ first-born, Joey Jr., was the first to choose Temple. He’ll be a senior this year, studying sports management. Liam will major in political science, and Seamus in exercise and sports science.
Richie was considering going to Temple, too.
“I said, ‘Don’t feel like you’re betraying the family. You can go to a different school,’ “Joe Glennon told his son.
The Glennons are among four sets of Temple multiples from New Jersey. There also are four from Maryland; the rest are from Pennsylvania. Thirty-one sets will live in residence halls, with 11 sets sharing a room with their sibling and eight more living in the same hall as their sibling but in different rooms, according to Temple.
Nine sets have declared the same major as their twin.
Some schools, including Wilson College, a small liberal-arts college in Chambersburg, offer special scholarships to twins and triplets. At Wilson, one set of twins is receiving the scholarship, equal to 45 percent off tuition.
Temple isn’t specifically recruiting twins or offering special scholarships for them, said Shawn Abbott, vice provost for admissions, financial aid and enrollment management, but the school is pleased that so many are choosing the North Philadelphia university.
The university hasn’t kept track of how well twins or triplets fare academically compared with other students or how often both remain enrolled through graduation.
Gadi Zimmerman and his twin brother, Shai, of Ambler, are seniors at Temple this year. Shai didn’t start at Temple. He transferred from Kutztown University his sophomore year, and the brothers have lived together in an off-campus apartment since then.
They originally didn’t want to attend the same university, but Gadi, a financial-planning major, and Shai, a secondary-education major, have found their niches.
“Having him here is nice at the end of the day,” Gadi said.