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February 14, 2005 Vol. 76, no. 5S
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| DOUBLE
TAKE: EECS juniors Stephanie and Jessica Leung
are fraternal twins. They usually share one course a semester; sometimes
professors notice the similarity, they say. Occasionally, one sister
will be walking on campus and someone she's never met will
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All
in the family
Twin EECS students live life as two of a kind
They're going to the same
university. They're in the same department, sometimes the same class.
They're in the same student society. They have the same last name. They
look so similar that one has been mistaken for the other. But sisters
and EECS juniors Jessica and Stephanie Leung are definitely not identical--biologically
or otherwise.
"After they've gotten to know us, people can tell us apart,"
insists Stephanie. "It probably takes about a month. We try not
to do the same things."
Jessica and Stephanie were born one minute apart, they say, and grew
up in nearby Concord. Though their mother wanted them to be doctors,
their dad urged engineering. In the end, the two decided on engineering.
But each discovered EECS in a different way. "When we were in high
school, it was during the dot.com boom and that really influenced me,"
Jessica says. "It seemed the way to go."
"For me," says Stephanie, "it was a process of elimination.
With EE, you can't be that jobless."
During their senior year, everyone applied to all the top UC schools,
explains Jessica, and both sisters landed in Berkeley Engineering. "That
wasn't really a goal," she says. "It just happened that
way."
On campus, Jessica and Stephanie have been just as nonchalant. "We
don't plan to avoid each other or be together," says Stephanie.
"That'd be too much trouble."
They do have a similar sense of style, the sisters say. Occasionally,
the dreaded thing will happen, and they wear the same shirt. "Sometimes
one of us will get those two-for-one shirt deals," explains Stephanie.
For all their similarities, both insist they're not competitive
with each other. And being sisters has its advantages. "I can still
bug her for stuff and never have to worry," says Jessica, "because
she's my sister."
Their future: Is it shared?
"We're not sure," shrugs Stephanie.
But both are eyeing graduate school.
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