While many students are focused on getting good letters of recommendation and internships in college, others might be planning a wedding.
Even though the Pew Research Center has found that marriage rates are down and marriage age has risen, for both men and women, there are couples who tie the knot before graduating. CNN reported that educated couples, with at least a bachelor’s degree, are more likely to have a happy, stable marriage.
At Stony Brook, couples and families can live in one bedroom apartments at Chapin and married graduate students and undergraduates can live at Schomburg. Couples with children can also take advantage of the day care. They can also send their older children to the Three Village School district, which transports children directly from Chapin.
According to Zhang Shen, 27, the university treats married and single students the same but a couple’s social network shrinks. He and his wife Chen, 25, a graduate student, spend most of their time together.
Michael Conrad, 25, also a graduate student said married life for him and his wife Joanne, 27, is different.
“It’s awkward,” Conrad said. “When you’re married, you go around as a couple pretty much.”
He also said there are less married couples and families at Stony Brook than at his old school, Montana State. At Stony Brook, it can be hard to mingle with single students. Many undergraduate students said they would not consider marriage before graduation, or even know anyone who has gotten engaged or married at Stony Brook.
“I guess marriage is a time for when you graduate,” said Yaël Saint-Armand, a junior.
Some students hold off on marriage while in college because they are not ready to take on the bills.
“If I was ready financially,” junior Myles Cambell said, “I would consider it more so.”
But some people have a different perspective on money.
“You’ll never be financially sound,” said married junior Steven Sternfeld, 24, who lives off campus with his wife Penina, 23. “I think it’s much better to get married at a younger age.”
Sternfeld said younger people are “more malleable” and less set in their ways than those who get married in their late 20s or 30s.
Students on campus are often surprised to learn about their marital status.
“Usually people are shocked,” Sternfeld said.