Weinberg senior Ross Sweet is waiting to hear back from Ph.D. programs across the country to find out where he and his girlfriend will be moving next year. Once Sweet decides, she’ll begin looking for a job nearby.

“It’ll end up being a compromise,” said Lizzie Nolan, a Weinberg senior and Sweet’s girlfriend of almost three years. “Ross has been applying all over the place, and our final decision will be a mix between the best school he gets into and the best opportunities that are available to me.”

Sweet and Nolan are among a group of seniors in relationships who are finding ways to make compromises between their careers and significant others in deciding where to move next year.

For Nolan, it means waiting a year before heading to graduate school. She said it’s important to her that she and Sweet are together next year because she’s not sure whether she’ll go to graduate school near him.

The decision to move came fairly easily to Rebecca Brandman, Weinberg ’05, who was set on moving to California to be close to her boyfriend. She’s currently at law school at The University of California at Berkeley but said she planned to move even if she hadn’t been accepted.

“We weren’t willing to compromise, but if I hadn’t moved, we would have broken up,” Brandman said. “It was really important for us to do whatever we could to be in the same place.”

Many graduating couples seem to put their professional plans on hold for a year to focus on their relationships, said Jillana Enteen, associate director of Northwestern’s Gender Studies program.

“It’s usually a matter of slowing down the next step,” Enteen said. “So instead of moving away for a job, they decide to stay in Chicago for a year to see where their relationship is going.”

Nathaniel Kozinn, Communication ’05, is working in Chicago as his girlfriend finishes school. They plan to move to California when she graduates in June, said his girlfriend, McCormick senior Shannon Gunstream.

“If I can get a job that’s flexible and if he wants to make movies, it makes better sense for us to be in California,” Gunstream said, adding that they’re prepared to make sacrifices.

“Right now, I’m willing to move for him, but if I get some sweet promotion to be a CEO, then we’d go with that,” she said. “It’s the same for him too. It’s just relative depending on who has the better opportunities.”

But opportunities aren’t the only consideration for many students. Women like Nolan who are deciding between a relationship and career plans said they felt pressured by their families to choose the latter.

“I feel like it’s almost discouraged to move somewhere,” Nolan said. “It’s not necessarily that they don’t want me to move with Ross, but everyone is always like, ‘You’re so young. You have so much time left, you don’t have to move.'”

Nolan, who grew up in Evanston, said she’s excited about moving to a new city. She’s “burned out” from school and would like to take a year off to get field experience before enrolling in graduate school.

Other students said they are considering long-distance relationships. David Prigge said he plans to go to medical school, while his girlfriend wants to work in Chicago.

“It’s a priority for us to be together, but we’re both pretty independent,” Prigge, a McCormick senior said. “Even though we’re not embracing the idea of putting this relationship on hiatus, we’re definitely open to it.”

Although most students said they were willing to compromise, some said parts of the deal are not negotiable.

“I made it clear that I wasn’t just going to give up my college years or my grad school plans,” Communication junior Corine Onyango said. “Basically, school is my priority. As soon as I’m done with that, I’m fair game.”

Onyango, who has been in a long-distance relationship for about a year, added her boyfriend will probably follow her to graduate school.

“He’s in a position where he can pick up and leave,” she said. “His job is not dependent on where he lives, so it makes more sense if he comes with me. We’ll just take it as it goes.”

Sweet and Nolan said their plans will also need to be flexible.

The couple will have to reconsider their priorities again when Nolan begins applying to graduate schools next year.

“I’ll definitely try to gear my applications to be close to Ross, but I don’t think my final decision will be based on location,” Nolan said. “It’s a natural thing to consider, but I’d rather that we take our time and do what we need to for ourselves. I don’t want to rush into this and mess it up.”

Reach Abha Bhattarai at [email protected].