Double degree: Shanghai twins both headed for MIT to study theoretical physics
Brothers who have studied together from a young age get coveted places with full scholarships at the prestigious university
Twin brothers from Shanghai have been accepted into the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with full scholarships to pursue doctoral degrees in theoretical physics.
Dong Zhihuan and Dong Zhiyu, 22, have studied in tandem from a young age, correcting each other’s homework from side-by-side desks, forging a love of physics by joining summer competitions together, and most recently completing undergraduate degrees in the subject at Fudan University.
Now they have won two of some 45 places that MIT’s department of physics offers to doctoral candidates each year.
“They applied to about eight to 10 universities, and they both got the same offer from four or five of those universities,” their father Dong Wenbo said, adding that other colleges offered a place to one brother but not the other. “Happily, they made the same choice.”
Despite sharing similar academic interests, the twins did not let competition get in the way of their relationship when they were growing up.