Amid the stress and confusion swirling in the minds of seniors as many plan for the next four years of their lives, some find comfort in the advice and path of an older sibling. For seniors, an older sibling’s college experience can show the younger sibling what they do or do not want their future to look like at college.

According to sciencedirect.com, 20 percent of younger siblings enroll at the same college as an older sibling. In part, this is because transitioning to a brand-new environment is much easier when there is a familiar face around who is already acclimated to that atmosphere. Family members are the best examples for this because they made the same adjustment, coming from the same home.

Senior Anna Sternberg committed to Penn State University and has a brother who is currently a junior at the university. She said, “I think it will make the college transition easier for me because I’m not fully leaving my family. Knowing that someone is there to look out for you makes you feel a lot more at ease.”

Younger siblings can benefit from having an older sibling who attends a college that they may be interested in, as their older sibling can expose them to the college lifestyle.

Kayleigh Quinn, a sophomore at Wake Forest University, has a younger brother, Chris Quinn, who also plans on attending the school. “I think my being at [Wake Forest] gave him a lot of exposure to the school, so when it came time to choose his top college, it felt like a natural choice,” said Quinn.

A common reason that younger siblings may follow the path of their older sibling is if they have similar personalities. Quinn said, “We’re similar types of people with shared interests, so [Wake Forest] naturally appealed to both of us.”

On the other hand, some want a new, independent experience away from their older siblings or are simply not interested in the same types of schools.

Senior Lizzie Miles explained that she wants to go to a different college than her sibling, who is currently a junior at Bryn Mawr College. “I wanted to go to a medium-sized or larger school and my older sibling wanted to go to a small school; I wanted to go to a school that was in a different part of the country and my older sibling wanted to stay in the northeast,” said Miles.

Siblings who have different interests outside of school may be more likely to take different paths regarding college as well. Miles said, “[My older sibling] wanted a school that was more focused on academics and had more offerings in the arts, whereas I wanted a school that was more well rounded and had groups of people who were into many different things.”

While navigating through big life choices, there is no better person to get advice from than someone who was once in your shoes. Whether siblings want to attend college with their older siblings or not, they can learn about the college experience and what they want their own experience to look like.