Twins at Xavier University Heading to Prestigious UMass MD/Ph.D. Program

The University of Massachusetts Medical School and the university’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences interview only 40 students each year for admission into the university’s joint M.D./Ph.D. program. Only 7 to 10 students each year are accepted for admission into the highly selective degree program.

This year, two of the students accepted are twin sisters from Quincy, Massachusetts. Ashley and Asia Matthew are chemistry majors at Xavier University of Louisiana. Both have 4.0 grade point averages. The sisters have been together since birth but they didn’t think they both would be accepted into the UMass program. “We were fully prepared to go on our own separate ways for the first time,” said Ashley.