It's not unusual to meet siblings who are at Auburn together. What is unusual is to meet quadruplets. But that's just what anyone who has a class with Elizabeth, Sarah, Will or Caitlin Haynes is going to find.
Although quadruplets can occur naturally, that was not necessarily the case with the Haynes kids. Their mother had given birth to their sister and went back on birth control. But when she stopped taking the pills because she and her husband wanted to conceive again, she wasn't having a menstrual cycle.
So her doctor prescribed her a very low dose of Clomid, a drug that stimulates ovulation. The medicine carried a 3 percent chance of causing twins. And both Haynes parents also had twins in their respective families.
They were born on July 30, 1990, in three minutes, because their mother had to have an emergency C-section at 35 weeks.
But the quadruplets maintain they are not the result of a medical side-effect. They just say their birth is what the Lord had planned for their family.
Quadruplets happen about once in every 571,787 pregnancies, according to the organization Mothers of Super Twins.
How they ended up at Auburn is a different story.
The Haynes' come from a modest background. Their mother is a schoolteacher and their father works for UPS. They also have an older sister, Anna Haynes Weathers.
And, although the quadruplets did commercials for Alfa Insurance from infancy until about 14, they didn't get rich from it quite like they said people thought they did.
"We never got a Happy Meal," Elizabeth, a freshman in Public Relations said. "Going through McDonald's, like, we just got the simple hamburger. You shared a small fry with someone and you shared a drink."
Caitlin, a freshman in Human Development and Family Studies, quips with characteristic humor, "We were very thin children."
But they wanted to go to college even though they knew they would have to pay for it themselves. So, when they applied to Auburn and their scholarships came in the mail last December, they decided the Plains was the place for them.
But the Haynes' are not all that different from any other siblings from small-town Alabama. They hail from Ohatchee near Oxford.
Sarah, a freshman in Human Development and Family Studies, said she almost had a stroke when she entered her Human Development auditorium class of nearly 300 students. So she's glad she unintentionally registered for two classes that each have another sister in them.
Will, a freshman in Business Marketing, lives in one apartment with some friends, while the girls live in another apartment, but Elizabeth says he is at their place all the time. They live in the same complex.
Will was originally going to live with them, but he said he decided to move when a friend from home ended up transferring to Auburn.
The girls said it was probably better he moved, because that way the living room doesn't turn into a battlefield over which gender gets to have their friends over.
But despite the occasional sibling squabble, they say they are glad to have each other and their unique bond.
"We always say it would be weird for us not to be quadruplets," Caitlin said. "Like, I can't imagine being the only child. You know, I can't imagine not having someone, when I was growing up, to play with. Or even now, to talk to."
But one of them admits that when she was younger she didn't like being a quadruplet. Sarah, who is shy and reserved when she first meets a person, said she didn't like all the attention they attracted.
"At the time I really thought the Lord messed up," she admits. But Sarah says she doesn't still feel that way, "They're my best friends, honestly."
During their upcoming time at Auburn they say they look forward to what God has planned for their lives.
The three girls all have a desire to work with orphans overseas. This summer Caitlin went to Honduras to work with orphans, and a year ago Sarah spent two weeks working at different orphanages in China.
"Right after college, if I'm not married, I would love to go back to China and volunteer in an orphanage," Sarah said.
Will said he is interested in working for a marketing firm in advertisement.
But whatever they do, they say they are glad they have each other.
"I'm excited to not have to take such a big step alone," Elizabeth said.
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