Today, the average age to get married is 27 for women and 29 for men, but that hasn’t stopped college students from getting hitched while still in school.
Gloria Servellon, a family studies and human development sophomore, got engaged last Christmas Eve after 10 months of dating her fiancé, Jose Grajeda.
Servellon has known her soon-to-be husband for years, but they didn’t begin dating until last year. They are planning their wedding for August of this year, said Servellon.
“We knew each other on a ‘hi-bye’ basis for years, but we’ve always had that ‘eye’ for each other,” Servellon said.
Servellon said that although they had talked about marriage, she was definitely not expecting to get engaged this soon.
“He completely caught me off guard,” she said. “Getting married was up in the air, but never set in stone.”
But Servellon said it was a welcome surprise because they both wanted a committed relationship.
“We didn’t want a ‘just for now’ relationship,” Servellon said. “We were both serious.”
According to the National Marriage Project, by age 25, 38 percent of women in the U.S. are married and 44 percent have already had their first child.
Servellon said that her family and friends happily accepted her engagement at a young age, but she has had her fair share of negative comments.
“People say, ‘Oh Gloria, you’re so young. You’re still in school, you have so much ahead of you.’ I understand that … but I know that if we both have the right mindset, we’ll be fine,” Servellon said.
“I don’t see the need for negativity. I accept opinions, but I don’t take it personally.”
Cynthia Cerpa, a public health junior, said she believes that marriage should wait until both people have finished school because she has seen firsthand how it can distract you from your schooling.
“I have friends who got engaged, married and pregnant while in school and never came back,” Cerpa said. “At our age, I think people are in a love mode where they just want to get married and don’t think about the future. It’s like, why do you want to grow up so fast?”
Servellon said she and her fiancé have been able to work through the difficult times in their relationship.
“Of course it’s hard. We have our disputes and whatnot, but we always work it out,” Servellon said. “It can get tough, but we are slowly getting by and everything is going good so far.”
A study by the Pew Research Center found that in 1960, 72 percent of Americans 18 and older were married, but in 2011 that number dropped to 51 percent.
Sarah Blomquist, a molecular and cellular biology freshman, understands why there could be a problem with getting married in college, but believes it’s up to each couple.
“Everybody is at a different stage in their life, so it’s hard to say whether or not people should be getting married in college,” Blomquist said. “It just depends on the persons involved.”
