As children, their parents dressed them in identical outfits and for 18 years they shared a bedroom. But now the Kent quadruplets have turned into young women whose life journey has landed them at East Texas Baptist University where they are embarking on individual paths — together.
“I’m looking forward to just growing while I’m in college,” Kinsey Kent said. “Since we aren’t together as much, we have the opportunity to grow as individuals.”
Kinsey, Kaitlyn, Klaire and Karson Kent enrolled at East Texas Baptist University this fall. Their older sister, Kallie, is a junior at the university and was an influence in the quadruplets choosing ETBU instead of their parents’ alma mater, Baylor University.
“Our older sister came here and she fell in love with it,” Kinsey said.
The quadruplets came to stay with their older sister and found how welcoming people were at the university.
“We fell in love with campus, too,” Klaire said. “It’s a really great place to learn and to grow.”
“And we all four felt God wanted us to be here,” Kinsey said.
At their home in Mount Pleasant, the Kent quadruplets shared one big, open bedroom that had four beds. In high school, they had some of the same classes and shared friends. Now, they are living separately, have different majors and are making their own friends.
“This is the first time we have ever been separate,” Kinsey said.
While Klaire noted she was excited to start college and meet new people, she said she was also “really sad to leave home because that’s all we’d known.”
Born Feb. 4, 1993, to Kevin and Jill Kent, the girls spent much of their childhood in matching outfits — which at times drove them crazy, but helped their mom keep track of them — and were grouped together a lot.
“You always had somebody there with you,” Kaitlyn said.
“You always had a friend,” Kinsey added.
As for the matching outfits, they still happen occasionally.
On the first day of class at ETBU, Kaitlyn and Karson had a class together and decided to walk to the room together.
“We were wearing almost the exact same outfit on the first day of class without seeing each other, without planning it,” Kaitlyn said. “Our teacher even commented on it, and he didn’t know we were sisters.”
The girls favor each other, but are by no means identical. They also developed individual personalities that make them fairly easy to tell apart.
Kaitlyn is quiet, shy, studious and hardworking, according to sister Kinsey who described herself as being more sporty, athletic and quicker to make friends. Klaire is “the cheerleader” and always happy and goofy, according to her sisters, while Karson is the peacemaker of the group.
Kaitlyn and Karson are majoring in business; Kinsey is majoring in political science; and Klaire is majoring in
speech communication.
“I’m just excited to see what happens,” Klaire said. “I don’t really know what I’m going to do with my life and that’s going to be a fun journey."
Meanwhile, older sister Kallie is showing them the ropes at the university, and the girls still get together at campus events, to have dinner together and simply to hang out.
“She’s a good older sister,” Kinsey said. “She says she’s happy that we’re here.”
But even with their sister here, Kinsey said she was nervous to move away from home and away from her parents.
“We know how we live together. We’re having to learn how to live with somebody new,” she said.
Because the girls do know how to live together, Kaitlyn said it was a benefit because they’re already used to roommates.
“We know what it’s like to share,” she said.
They still plan to go home regularly to visit their family.
“They’re excited that we’re here,” Kinsey said.
“I know our mom has been sad. To go from having four children at home to none is hard for her, but she is glad we’re here.”
Life at the university is providing a similar support to the girls that they had growing up.
“Our faith has been important to us throughout our whole life,” Kinsey said. “Being a quadruplet, you always had a built-in accountability. You always had support. ETBU is giving us that accountability and support in a different way. It’s good to be here.”
