The transition into college is typically a solo mission. Students will pack their bags, load up the car and leave their family behind to embark on a new independent lifestyle.
But for some Elon University students with older siblings on campus, this is not the case. For many, having family on campus can seem limiting — being unable to create your own path — but others benefit from a familial guide.
Life before college
Many siblings bicker and fight, but eventually become closer as they grow up. Others may drift further apart, choosing different colleges after childhood.
But some siblings find themselves physically closer than even when they wind up attending the same college.
Siblings senior Meghan Windle and sophomore Kerry Windle were always close growing up.
“When we were really young, I idolized her, we were best friends,“ Kerry Windle said.
But they did fight throughout middle school, as most sisters do.
“When she got to sixth grade she decided she hated me,” Kerry Windle said.
“I didn’t hate you, I was just obnoxious,” Meghan Windle said.
During high school, they rekindled their friendship, and the two agreed they were best friends once Meghan left for college.
These close-knit sibling relationships can also guide students to the same college. Sophomore Rachel Foley said her brother, Nick Foley ’15, was a great role model.
“We were really close growing up,” Rachel Foley said. “I would always joke around that sometimes I was his big sister too because I would try to stick up for him and I would be like, ‘that’s my brother’ and be really proud of him, so we were definitely really close.”
Similarly, coming from a close-knit family, brothers sophomore Remy O’Toole and senior Dylan O’Toole have always been friends, which lead the two to the same college.
“I feel like we have always had an amicable relationship, we never fought a lot,” Dylan O’Toole said. “It’s good that he’s the youngest and I’m the oldest, so we kind of have that buffer that’s Thomas [our other brother] in the middle.”
Choosing Elon
Most students, if asked, would decline the offer to attend school with their sibling because of the desire to create their own path. But for those who do, many times sharing a college with a sibling brings about an indisputable sense of comfort and familiarity.
Rachel Foley said her brother was a large factor as to why she chose to attend Elon.
“Not because I wanted to follow him, but because of him I knew about Elon and I sort of knew that it would be a school I could see myself at because I would come visit him and I knew I would feel comfortable here,” she said.
Similarly, Remy O’Toole said he wouldn’t have known about Elon if his big brother Dylan O’Toole wasn’t already a student.
“I don’t know if it’s the reason I came but it was a big factor — it’s good to have someone that you know so well at school,” Remy said.
Kerry Windle never thought she would end up at school with her sister Meghan.
“I took a tour because I didn’t want to help move her [Meghan] out,” Kerry Windle said. “I had been on 15 college tours and just never really got that feeling. I wanted that feeling.”
After that tour, Elon had always been buzzing in Kerry Windle’s mind and eventually it became her No. 1 choice in school, as well.
“I didn’t realize I had that college feeling here until later,” she said. “I looked back and realized when we moved her in her freshman year being like, ‘This is college, this feels so right.’ It took me a while once I got in before I could decide, but then one day I just realized it was right.”
Living side by side
After realizing Elon was the right choice for higher education, siblings are still able to find their own way to distinguish themselves from their familial counterparts. But they still look towards their older sibling for guidance.
Though Rachel and Nick Foley are three years apart in age, they made an effort to see each other at least once a week. Because of their different schedules, their accidental run-ins were few and far between.
“We would always try to meet up for dinner on a Friday or something and catch up and that was always really nice to have someone from home here — it provided some stability, it made me feel more comfortable in my transition,” Rachel Foley said.
Rachel Foley said going to school with her brother actually made them even closer than they were before.
“It probably strengthened [our relationship] because we shared Elon, so we had this shared experience where I could make an Elon related joke that he would get,“ she said.
College is a time of self-discovery and growth. Sometimes having a sibling at the same university allows for that growth to happen together.
“The two of us are doing it together — it’s kind of cool,” Kerry Windle said.
A downside to having a safety net of a sibling is the possibility of taking away from the younger sibling’s experience and establishment of independence. Dylan O’Toole worries that this may have been the case for his little brother Remy O’Toole.
“It’s [college] kind of all just about being dropped into a different circumstance and having to adapt to it, and I think he sort of lost some of that,” Dylan O’Toole said. “But he still got a little of it, I wasn’t helicoptering over him the whole time.”
But Dylan O’Toole believes it is good to have a familiar face at school to relay the information and the ropes of going to school. This is especially true with close siblings.
Now, as Dylan O’Toole finishes his final semester and both brothers are living together, Remy O’Toole thinks of it as another piece of home.
“We’ve lived together our whole lives,” he said. “I don’t mind at all.”
Finding their own path
The Windle sisters have both pursued majors in the School of Communications. Though Kerry Windle initially thought she would go to the business school, she is now a strategic communications and media analytics double major and Meghan Windle is serving as the current president of the Public Relations Student Society of America at Elon.
Kerry Windle said she has followed certain things her sister has done, not to copy her, but because that’s how things have always been.
“Both of our freshmen years we were in West, and her sophomore year she was in a [Colonnades] pod and now I’m in a ‘Nades pod,” she said. “So it’s kind of like those things are the way I know it, so that’s the way I do it.”
For the things they’ve done the same, there are still differences in their experiences.
Kerry Windle helped found the Circle K club, a community service club that is the college version of the Key Club most high schools have, something her older sister has never done.
“I think she has made her mark on Elon in that respect,” Meghan Windle said, “I’ve made mine in different aspects so I think that’s really good that she sprouted off.”
Rachel Foley credits Elon for its ability to foster great experiences, no matter how different they are.
“We had really different experiences,” Rachel Foley said. “Nick was a runner on the cross country team — I’m not an athlete here. He wrote for The Pendulum, and I’m involved with the Elon television show ETalk. So different things, but I think that’s what’s so cool — that we could both come here and have such unique experiences.”