Before some students finish their college education and walk the stage, they walk down the aisle to get their M.R. or M.R.S. degree.
Out of 173 students who took a weekly Hub@TTU poll, 10 percent said they had already gotten married, 25 percent said they would get married before finishing school, 52 percent said they want to wait until after graduation, and 12 percent were unsure.
The Hub@TTU opened a week-long poll and asked students what they think about getting married before graduating college.
Danielle Hathcoat, a senior journalism major from Lubbock has been married for almost six months and was with her husband D.J. for four years before getting married at the end of summer 2014.
“My life as a married college student isn’t as different as I thought it would be as just a single college student,” she said. “I still go to class, do my homework, do everything I did before. There’s just someone else with me now. I would say the only difference is every once in a while we have to figure out how to make time for each other.”
The Hathcoats were married at Tierra del Corazon before the fall semester of 2014. Photo by Jessica Overholt
She began planning her wedding during the school year.
“It was a huge balancing act pretty much,” Hathcoat said, “because I was still in class, doing homework, and studying, and working, and also wedding planning, but I think it was completely worth it. There wasn’t ever a moment where I felt like it was too much because I knew the planning was all going to be for something good in the end.”
Jenabeth Gunter, a senior electronic media and communications major from Olton, Texas, got engaged to Tanner Morgan, a junior exercise and sports science major from Pearland, Texas, in November 2014. They have been dating since their freshman year at Texas Tech University.
The couple has made the decision to get married on July 24, 2015, before finishing college. Gunter will graduate early and will be pursuing her master’s degree during her first year of marriage. Morgan will be finishing his bachelor’s degree and then will continue to medical school wherever he is accepted.
Jenabeth Gunter and Tanner Morgan got engaged November 2014. Their wedding date is July 24, 2015. Photo by Annique Marie Photography
“Although some people feel like they’re not ready for that commitment while in college,” she said, “sometimes people will mature in different stages and come to the conclusion. Since we came to the conclusion that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with each other a long time ago, we thought there wasn’t any point in waiting for so long until that happened.”
Finances are important in planning any wedding and marriage. Gunter said she is balancing the cost of school with the cost of a wedding. To help with cost, she looked for bargains and help from personal connections. Her cousin is a baker; a friend is providing music, and her grandmother is paying for her wedding dress.
According to a wedding planning website called TheKnot, the average expense of a wedding is $30,000.
“Really whether you have a small wedding or a big wedding,” Gunter said, “by the end of the day you’re still going to be married.”
Although there is no specific financial aid for married college students, being married could qualify students for financial aid based on a FAFSA application.
Paul Blake, senior associate director of Texas Tech University Financial Aid & Scholarships, wrote in an email there are no specific financial aid programs for married college students. The FAFSA takes into account a student’s situational characteristics as well as the Estimated Family Contribution and available financial aid.
“Students who apply for financial aid are evaluated based on their prior year’s income, the current number of people in the household, the number in college and their current assets,” he wrote. “The federal aid application processes each applicant based on their individual application information — married or single.”
Weston Davis, a junior electronic media and communications major from Lubbock, said his grandparents and parents married young, which influenced his decision to get married as a student. He met his fiancée, The Hub@TTU News Director Sarah Self-Walbrick, in high school. By the couple’s wedding in September, they will have been together for four years.
Sarah Self-Walbrick and Weston Davis have been dating since high school. Their wedding date is set in September 2015. Photo by Sarah Keith, Think Pretty Photography
“I’d always known since our first date,” he said, “because whether a guy admits it or not, they think about this kind of stuff, depending on the guy, just as much as a crazy girl would.”
He said the discussion of marriage came up after a couple years of dating. Self-Walbrick gave Davis her grandmother’s wedding ring, so he could plan a proposal when the time was right.
“She gave me her grandmother’s ring to get fixed up, polished, cleaned, sized to her specifications, and then I sat on it for a bunch of months.”
Danielle and D.J. Hathcoat have been married for six months. Photo by Jessica Overholt
Hathcoat said marriage is a serious commitment and age of the couple or being a student should not be a discouragement as long as the intentions are true. She said her family and friends supported her through her engagement, the wedding-planning process, and her and D.J.’s new marriage.
“Really with two coming together it hasn’t been that big of an issue,” she said. “As long as you’re working hard and both still are happy in making the marriage what it’s supposed to be, you shouldn’t really have any problems and what a lot of the people will say to discourage you isn’t really true.”
About Nicole Molter
