Povolo Quintuplets Get Full-Ride Scholarships To Montclair State University
TOTOWA, N.J. (CBSNewYork) - We all know how expensive it is to pay for college. Some students and families go into debt for higher education. Well, imagine having quintuplets - that's five kids - all applying at the same time.
The Povolo quintuplets were born in 2002: Two girls and three boys. They're now 17 years old and high school seniors.
Victoria is the oldest of the five, who were born five minutes apart. The family is incredibly close, but it has been challenging especially when it comes to money.
"Cars, college, and even when it comes to, like, phones and clothes, it's everything times five," said Victoria's brother Marcus.
The siblings looked at a handful of colleges and wanted to stay in New Jersey. Montclair State University was one of those schools. Admissions Director Jeffrey Gant was impressed they all had 4.0s and above, but it wasn't just their grades.
"As well as their community and sports and they're working outside of the home as well," Gant said.
So Montclair State offered all five siblings full-ride scholarships, worth more than $200,000 total.
Victoria got the phone call.
"'I just wanted to let you know that you guys are tuition-free to come to Montclair,'" she said.
"We got the news and we were all petrified, nobody had a reaction. We were like, what?" mom Silvia Povolo said.
The kids said they all felt relieved.
"I think I started crying a little bit," said Ashley Povolo.
"Only a week ago, just a week, we went to the bank to ask to refinance the house," dad Paolo Povolo said.
Montclair State is the second-largest university in New Jersey, with more than 21,000 students and lots of choices when it comes to majors. That is good since each quintuplet wants to study something different: Accounting, dietitian, education, political science and biochemistry.
There's no doubt this family is gonna go for it.
The quints will be starting college in the fall, and they'll be living at home. It's just 10 minutes away from their new school.
