Hillsdale College students have been using the term “ring by spring” for years to describe the perennial phenomenon of seniors getting engaged prior to graduation.
This year has proven no different, even so early in the spring semester. Already, there are around 25 seniors who are either engaged or married. Although typical for Hillsdale, this number is a rarity for most other colleges across the U.S.
The median age at which most Americans marry for the first time is 30 years for men and 28 years for women, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But youth hasn’t stopped seniors such as Jonathan Meckel, age 21, and his fiance and junior Allison Moss, age 20, from planning their marriage.
Many of Meckel’s closest friends from home — rural, conservative Lincoln, NE —are already married. Being raised in that environment, he said, made the idea of marrying in college natural.
“I kind of figured college will start and I will figure that kind of thing out. Then I met her before I came to college and we started dating and things kind of just naturally progressed,” he said. “But when I did think about it in high school, it wasn’t like I had to get married young. I thought it’ll come along when it comes along and my life will fit around that.”
Never once has Meckel received a comment from someone on campus regarding his young age since getting engaged. Some of his closest friends are engaged as well. The attitude at Hillsdale, Meckel said, is vastly different than he would expect elsewhere.
Senior Julia Mullins, however, was very opposed to the idea of getting engaged while at Hillsdale.
“I rolled my eyes at the idea of ‘ring by spring,’ like it just absolutely disgusted me. And I had a couple friends last year that were engaged, and even knowing that I was going to marry Cole at that point, I said I will not be that silly senior trying to get through graduation with an engagement ring on her finger. I even swore off wearing the engagement ring in public,” Mullins said.
Her perspective finally changed senior year, right before her fiance, Cole McNeely ’19, popped the question. After the moment happened, she said, she became so happy at the prospect of marrying McNeely that her feelings of original disdain for college engagements subsided.
“Even though I was very opposed to this whole concept and the idea of getting married basically right out of college, there’s nothing I’d rather be doing. I’m very excited about it,” she said. “And for those people reading this article rolling your eyes, that’s OK. You just haven’t found love yet, but when you do, you’ll also want to be married as soon as you can.”
U.S. News and World Report reveals, however, Hillsdale bucks the national trend in another way. While Hillsdale remains consistent in the number of engaged seniors it produces, marriage rates among the majority of Americans are declining.
“In 2018, the rate fell to 6.5 – the lowest level in the 118-year period covered by the new report and the lowest recorded since 1867, the first year for which federal government data on national marriage is available,” according to the U.S. News and World Report article.
With a rough 14% of Hillsdale seniors engaged as graduation slowly approaches, many couples on campus are adjusting to their engagement. According to senior Emma Cummins, the number seems even higher. So many in Cummins’ group of friends are engaged that they formed an engaged girl’s workout group that meets four times per week to get in shape for the big day.
Cummins said that waiting to get married, especially when you’ve found the right person, doesn’t make much sense.
“I think all of us are mature individuals who see the benefits and beauty of being married. The glamour of the single lifestyle fades very quickly,” she said.
