By Tristan McInnis
“My brother and I were in the Oslo airport–before freshman year–with all of our bags, and that’s when I knew it was going to be real,” said Torjus Grimsrud ’19. “I was going to live in a new country with my brother not knowing what to expect, and the only thing I could think about was how it would be ok because my brother would be there.”
Torjus, and his older brother Mathias Grimsrud ’18, are one of the many pairs of siblings on the St. Michael’s campus that have shared a unique college experience with their family.
According to Matthew Desorgher, associate director of student financial services, 32 pairs of siblings are enrolled this fall, thus, 64 students have a sibling at the college. There are advantages at St. Michael’s if you attend school together, for example there is a financial incentive of $3,000 on top of mutual benefits of going to school together according to financial services.
Choosing a college can be one of the more difficult life choices for many, and the ability to go to school with a sibling can often be a deciding factor. A study conducted in 2015 at Harvard University concluded that “younger siblings are 15-20 percent more likely to enroll in 4-year colleges if their older siblings do so first.”
According to the study, one reason younger siblings follow older siblings is that siblings may enjoy each other’s company and benefit from one another while being on the same campus. As a small school, St. Michael’s emphasizes’ the strength of it’s community, making it an ideal place for close siblings to grow together.
This fall the Grimsrud brothers were joined on campus by their twin sisters Julianne ’21 and Tiril ’21. All four of the Grimsruds will compete side-by-side on the alpine ski team this winter.
Mathias originally heard about St. Michael’s from former countrymen and alpine ski team member Frederik Sandell ’15, who convinced Mathias to come. Head coach Angus Macleod also recruited Mathias for the team, as he previously skied in the European Cup for the Norwegian National Team. Mathias ultimately chose St. Michael’s because he could sense the campus’ close knit community and he wanted to combine skiing and education. “Coming to a smaller school, I felt more comfortable being an international student, and I felt less nervous about being here,” Mathias said.
Mathias’ younger brother Torjus joined him at St. Michael’s the next year. “It was an easy decision, we would get a little more money in financial aid if we were both here and it would help us out in the long run.”
Taking on college together was not necessarily easy at first. “Mathias tried to be my Dad initially, but that ended quickly,” Torjus said. “On a few weekends over the beginning of my freshman year Mathias tried to control what I did, I knew he was looking out for me but it was a dynamic I had never experienced before,” Torjus added.
Their relationship has since recovered, and even strengthened, both saying that they grew closer through living together and sharing mutual friends. “We love going to school together because we are best friends,” Torjus said.
After watching their brothers ski, study, and hang out together from Oslo, the Grimsrud sisters decided to enroll this fall. The twins, Julianne and Tiril, both never planned on going to the same school as their brothers, but a visit to the campus sold them on it. “We looked and had desire to go to other schools, but we ultimately wanted to go to the same school as our brothers,” Julianne said.
The four siblings possess a natural closeness evident in meeting them. Attending school together maintained their original closeness, and fostered new ways for the family to grow together. “We feel safer in another country with our brothers, and we would not want it any other way,” Tiril said.
According to the siblings interviewed on campus, most sibling pairs see being together as mutually beneficial, and affirm that they enhance each other’s college experiences.
The Collopy siblings from Holliston, Mass., Ryan ’18 and Sandra ’18, have been attending St. Michael’s together since 2014. Although the two are in the same class, they are not the same age–Ryan took a year off from schooling after high school, and enrolled with Sandra as freshmen right after Sandra graduated high school.
When it came time for Sandra to choose schools, she was unsure of her plan. She figured that knowing the college was a good fit for her brother would help ease her transition into a new place.
While the two did not originally plan on attending school together, they said it has created a new relationship between them. “I usually see her once a day and it’s different than at home, but it’s nice to know that I will see her often,” Ryan said.
The two agree that being on campus with one another is a beneficial experience in many ways, “Except for things like sharing the car, that can get interesting between the two of us, other than that we seem to never have any issues,” added Ryan