After making headlines nearly four years ago after getting accepted into 59 universities, including Harvard, Duke, Yale and Stanford, Aaron, Nick, Zach, and Nigel Wade, better known as the Wade Quad, are closing the chapter on an impressive academic journey.
According to Today, the four brothers from the Cincinnati suburb of Liberty Township in Ohio ultimately decided to stick together — thanks to a hefty financial aid package — opting to attend Yale University. During their time there, Aaron double majored in computer science and psychology, while Nick obtained a degree in political science, with a minor in Arabic.
Zach also doubled majored, choosing chemical engineering and economics, while Nigel got his degree in molecular, cellular and developmental biology. Technically only three of the boys were able to turn their tassel as Aaron will spend one more semester at school while he completes his senior thesis.
Despite being born just minutes apart, the four young men, now 22, managed to lead utterly different college lives — though there were, of course, the random run-ins on campus that happened very rarely. However, they told People it was their diverse academic choices that enabled them to create their own identities. In addition, the brothers revealed that in the four years they attended Yale, Aaron and Nigel were the only two who shared a class — a 2,000-person psychology lecture. They also requested that they be put into different residential colleges; the college has 14 arbitrarily assigned.
“We grew up in this town where we had always existed as The Quads or the Wade brothers. But when we got to Yale, it was very much small fish in a big pond. Nobody really knew who we were. I feel that when people met me at Yale, they met Aaron Wade, as opposed to one of the quadruplets,” Aaron told the media outlet. “I wouldn’t [sic] just be walking on the street and just be like, ‘Oh hey, there’s my brother.’ When that happened, I would be shook. I’d be like, ‘Oh my God, I completely forgot that you go to this school.'”
“In high school, we all knew the same people. So in a sense, that didn’t allow us to divert as much as we might’ve wanted to,” Nick added. “But in college, because there’s so many different types of people, and we had so many different diverse interests, I think we were able to carve our paths in our own way.”
Much like their college days, the boys will be headed down varying paths as Nick has landed a gig at Goldman Sachs in New York, while Nigel will remain in New Haven, Connecticut, for a two-year research program in a lab focused on Parkinson’s disease, before heading to medical school. Zach also will be working for Goldman Sachs but in San Francisco, Cafiorinia. Once Aaron is done in December, he’ll be moving to New York City to work for Google.
