Identical twins Jennifer Pilcher Schneier ’90 and Carolyn Pilcher McAllister may look alike, but you won’t catch them wearing the same shade of blue during March Madness.
Spending their childhood in Clemmons, North Carolina, Jennifer and Carolyn grew up cheering for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during basketball season. In their tight-knit community and at their small private high school, they were close – but as they approached their senior year, they contemplated spreading their wings a bit.
“I love Jennifer, but I think we’d had enough. It was such a small school,” says Carolyn. “We wanted to be together – not at the same school, but not too far apart.”
While Carolyn was all-in on Carolina (“There was no question. It was the only school I applied to.”), Jennifer applied to a handful of schools with the hope that Duke would be her final destination.
“I was very studious. I had my mind set on having a scholarly experience for four years, but also trying to enjoy myself. Duke seemed to fit the bill,” Jennifer shares. The school spirit at Duke was also a selling point: “You’d show up on campus, and every kid had on a Duke sweatshirt – Duke emblazoned across their chest. There was such pride in the school, and I really fed into that.”
While Carolyn studied journalism at Carolina, Jennifer dove into the comparative studies program at Duke. And although they had originally chosen different schools to spend some time apart, it wasn’t long before they were traveling the nine miles between the schools regularly to visit each other.
“There were times when we even showed up [to visit each other] in the same outfit,” Carolyn laughs. “We had both gone shopping at the mall separately and ended up picking the same ’80s outfit.”
After a couple of years apart, the twins decided they wanted to spend time together again. Before their junior year, they researched until they found a study abroad program in Paris that would accept students from both Duke and UNC. The two describe their semester in France as a transformative life experience – and one they are grateful to have shared. The two reveled in traveling the city with one another, taking advantage of their time abroad by visiting as many museums as possible.
Back in North Carolina, Carolyn and Jennifer also both found love at their respective schools, meeting the men they would eventually marry serendipitously at parties. Carolyn enjoyed bringing her then-boyfriend, John, to Duke’s campus to visit her sister, even though their visit would sometimes have a humorous unintended consequence.
“Jennifer’s boyfriend, Steve, had dark hair, and John had blond hair, but Jennifer and I looked exactly alike,” Carolyn says. “So if I showed up with John, rumors flew back on Duke’s campus that Jennifer was dating someone else.”
Over the years, the sisters have tried to take in as many Duke-UNC basketball games together as possible. They haven’t always lived in the same area post-graduation, but now that Carolyn has retired from her career as an occupational therapist, and Jennifer has found work as general counsel at the North Carolina League of Municipalities, they are excited to be close enough to plan more watch parties with each other. They insist the rivalry doesn’t bring out the worst of them while the game is on. Instead, they enjoy the opportunity to spend time talking and laughing together.
Their birthday this year falls on Saturday, March 8, which just happens to be the day of the final Duke-UNC regular season game at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill.
They plan to celebrate by watching this battle of the blues on TV. Together, of course.