When students Jennifer Harsany and Andrew Simpson met during their sophomore year at a philanthropy event their Greek houses put on, they immediately hit it off.

Harsany recalled joking to a friend, “I just met the man I’m going to marry.”

Nearly two years later, it’s no longer a joke.

Simpson, a McCormick senior, and Harsany, who finished undergraduate work after three years and is now a Medill graduate student, are engaged to be married July 9.

Sitting together on couches in Norris University Center, Harsany and Simpson already act like a typical young married couple — they laugh as they point out each other’s quirks and finish each other’s sentences when they tell stories.

Some people may think marriage this soon — both will be 22 next summer — is a mistake. But Harsany politely disagrees.

“We’re just very confident in what we’re doing,” she said.

And so are the other members of Northwestern’s engaged student population. Though engagements in college pose challenges, the students agree that they wouldn’t have it any other way.

According to the 2003 census, about 9.1 percent of 15- to 24-year-olds are married.

But experts say the average marriage age is rising. Alexandra SoloMonday, a clinical psychologist who works with couples, said most people get married in their mid-to-late 20s. Because college students are younger than this median, their engagements often clash with ideas of our societal norms, Solomon said. College life also creates more threats to serious relationships.

“The atmosphere of casual dating could pose a challenge to individuals who are trying to create and maintain a really committed relationship,” said SoloMonday, who teaches Marriage 101 at NU.

Weinberg sophomore Tiffany Woods has been engaged to her fiance, Brian Wyatt, a sophomore at the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign, since March 2003.

Woods and Wyatt have had a long-distance relationship since they began dating before their sophomore year of high school. They attended different schools and lived 40 minutes apart.

“You have to keep trusting each other,” Woods said. “I understand girls have their eyes on him, and he understands guys have their eyes on me.”

Woods and other engaged college students said they don’t miss the dating scene. They said finding their ideal matches outweighs the appeal of fishing for another partner.

“The ‘Carrie Bradshaw’-type of life — that’s not for me, not for my fiance,” said Mark Brandau, a Medill senior who has been engaged to Medill senior Allison Werner since Sept. 15. “We’ve always been more commitment-minded. We were just so lucky that one of the first relationships we got into at Northwestern happened to be someone who was so well-suited for us.”

A couple’s confidence in their relationship is essential, Solomon said. Because they’re going against the cultural norm, engaged students are sometimes criticized for their choice.

Education senior Amanda Mitchell said people sometimes make the comment, “You’re so young” when she says she’s engaged.

“I just think that is really judgmental,” said Mitchell, who has been engaged to Pietro Andreuccetti, McCormick ’03, since September. “I’m not telling other people they have to get married. I’m making my own choices.”

Some criticism about students’ maturity stems from the idea that people should use college as a period of self-discovery before committing to one person. Solomon advised students to understand themselves before pledging to someone forever.

Engaged students echoed her sentiment.

“Engagement is not something that’s required after a certain amount of dating,” Brandau said. “(It) must happen when you’re certain there’s no reason to look for anyone else.”

Harsany and Simpson said there’s no question they’re certain about being together as a married couple next year — and for the rest of their lives.

“I don’t have to look for a roommate when I get a job,” said Simpson, smiling as Harsany jumped in to finish his thought.

“And I’ll have someone to cook for me.”

Reach Francesca Jarosz at [email protected].

Nuptials by the numbers

Percentage of people nationwide who are married, by age:

15-17 years

1.2%

18-19 years

3.5%

20-24 years

19.3%

Source: 2003 U.S. Census survey