The Wade quadruplets have an indelible bond, but their divergent interests kept them mostly apart during their four years at Yale University. And their graduation from the Ivy League school means the four brothers will be even further apart as they embark on very different careers.
The 22-year-old “Quad Squad” from the Cincinnati suburb of Liberty Township, made headlines when they were accepted to an eye-popping 59 universities in 2017. Nick, Zach, Nigel quickly decided to head to Yale, while Aaron hesitated, considering Stanford before electing to join his brothers in New Haven.
But even though they were at the same university, the four didn’t share fields of study, or living spaces. In fact, only two had a course together, when Aaron and Nigel ended up in “Psychology and the Good Life,” together. Yet the massive class of 2,000 required the lectures to be broadcast, so even then, they were often not in the same room anyway.
“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 Wade told People. “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.”
In fact, they often went weeks without seeing each other on campus.
“It’s interesting, because I think that the togetherness was very intangible,” Aaron told Today. “We studied different things and occupied different spaces on campus. We’re very different individuals.
“We lived on four different corners of campus, so sometimes we would go weeks or a month, or I’d run into my brother and go ‘Oh yeah, you go to school here, too,’” he said.
Nick, who graduated with a degree in political science and a minor in Arabic, is now heading to New York to work for Goldman Sachs, while Zach, who double majored in chemical engineering and economics, will also work for the investment bank, but in San Francisco.
Nigel, who earned a degree in molecular, cellular and developmental biology, will stay in New Haven doing research.
Aaron, who double majored in computer science and psychology, shared a “ceremonial” graduation celebration with his brothers because he has one more semester at Yale to finish his senior thesis.
Going in different directions doesn’t mean that the brothers will lose their bond, Wade told Today. “To know no matter what I’m going through, I have three siblings, who are in the exact same place in their lives,” he said. “It’s really special to know I have these three other people who know me better than anyone in the world.”