College-educated young adults are more likely than those without a bachelor’s degree to be married by age 30, according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

In 2008, 62 percent of college-educated 30 year olds were married or had been married, in comparison to 60 percent of 30 year olds who did not have a college degree.

This is said to be a reversal of long-standing marital patterns, according to the Pew Research Center. In 1990, 69 percent of college-educated 30 year olds were married or had been married, in comparison to 75 percent of not college-educated 30 year olds.

Megan Leidenz, a 21-year-old psychology junior, married earlier this month.

“”We love each other, we knew we would be together for the rest of our lives, so we just figured why not,”” she said.

Leidenz has been in a relationship with her husband for five years. She said that they had talked about marriage for years, and the only reason they would have considered waiting to wed is to “”have a bit more money.”” She added that her parents were very supportive in her decision to marry young, and that her father’s only concern was that she would not complete her degree.

The research center said that a possible explanation for this shift is the declining economic successes of young men without a college degree and their increasing tendency to live with a partner rather than marry them. From 1990 to 2008, the inflation-adjusted median annual earnings of college-educated men from ages 25 to 34 increased by 5 percent, while the median annual earnings of individuals with a high school education declined by 12 percent.

Another possible explanation given by the center is that young women with college degrees are now just as likely as women without college degrees to marry, which was, according to the center, not the case in 1990.

Courtney Burford, a nutritional sciences junior, has been dating her fiance for four years and is planning to get married in the summer of 2012, although she has not yet picked an official date. She explained that she did not consider waiting to wed because they had been dating so long that they “”knew for a while that they were going to get married.””

She also said they do not need to wait because they both have set career paths — her as a clinical dietician, and him with Cox Communications, his employer for the past few years.

She added that her family is excited for the future wedding, and that her fiance asked her mom’s permission to marry beforehand.