marriage timing

[guest]

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i'm a 3rd year dental student and my gf is a 1st year med student. we've been going out for 3 years now, and we're starting to decide when the right time to get married is. i'd loved to get married soon...

she's extrememly stressed out about the whole situation and feels that the only time available is this winter (2nd year) or 3rd year residency, notice the 6 year gap.

are there any other potential times in between? could a marriage be done say before/after step 1?

thanks.

 

[fun8stuff]

i'm a 3rd year dental student and my gf is a 1st year med student. we've been going out for 3 years now, and we're starting to decide when the right time to get married is. i'd loved to get married soon...

she's extrememly stressed out about the whole situation and feels that the only time available is this winter (2nd year) or 3rd year residency, notice the 6 year gap.

are there any other potential times in between? could a marriage be done say before/after step 1?

thanks.

those are probably yhe most busy times. the best times is either the summer after first year (what i am doing) or during/toward end of 4th year. these are the only times where a med student has a significant amount of free time and are the most popular times for getting married.

 

[dajimmers]

I'd say it depends on what type of wedding you're planning. If it is a small wedding that can be planned mostly by your parents, or definitely if it is a Vegas drive-through 😉 , you'll have more options. I don't know how busy a dental student/resident's schedule is, but your girlfriend *may* have some time between M2/M3 if the school has plenty of board study time and she can take the boards early and use the rest of the time for the wedding. M4 year should work out fine as well, she should have elective vacation time then. This summer too would work, but I'm assuming that's not an option.

 

[jllander]

My fiance and I had a hard time picking a date as well. He's got one more year of school and I am just now starting my summer between 1st and 2nd year. We went round and round and eventually decided to get married New Year's weekend of my third year. We won't get much of a honeymoon but we plan on taking a longer one after 4th year ends. Good luck to you and congrats!

 

[lj1230]

My husband and I got married between year 1 and year 2 of med school. That I think is the "best" time, but others in our class got married over christmas break of 2nd year, and I have even heard over spring break. I think it depends on how big of a wedding you are planning, and how involved in planning your soon-to-be wife wants to be. If you can have other family members and friends help out a lot with the planning that will make it a lot easier. I was gonna get married after STEP 1 and before year 3, but it was just sooooo much; I felt really overwhelmed. However, there is a guy in our class that is doing it, so anything is possible. The next good time would be sometime during year 4, that usually is a less intense year.

Hope that helps! Good luck!

 

[tupac_don]

i'm a 3rd year dental student and my gf is a 1st year med student. we've been going out for 3 years now, and we're starting to decide when the right time to get married is. i'd loved to get married soon...

she's extrememly stressed out about the whole situation and feels that the only time available is this winter (2nd year) or 3rd year residency, notice the 6 year gap.

are there any other potential times in between? could a marriage be done say before/after step 1?

thanks.

You can easily do it in 4th year. Lot of students take cush rotations, and if she has it planned you can easily do it. Plus you got 2 mos off after 4th year before starting residency. So not sure what she is talking about. Plus in pretty much every single residency out there, you have 3 weeks vacation during residency, so you can do it. But probably the best time would be in 4th year, probably after the Match, so anytime after March.

 

[ramstam]

Doesn't anyone besides me say WAIT? I've been married for five years, and because of school we have been living in different states for a year now..with one more to go. Marriage causes the accumulation of STUFF. Stuff makes it difficult and stressfull to move around during school. I would wait...but I didn't.

 

[blueray83]

my fiance and i are very tentatively planning to get married summer 07 (the summer between MS1 and MS2 for me...he will be at a city college). i am curious how you guys all were able to pay for everything if you didn't have much parental financial healp. neither of our parents will be able to help us out much. since i will be taking out loans for school, and chances are that he will too, i have been thinking about waiting until school is all over and we have some sort of income. we're not wanting anything super extravagent, but it seems like it gets expensive quick, and we would like our close friends and family to be able to celebrate with us. any thoughts? did anyone just add to their loans?

 

[fun8stuff]

my fiance and i are very tentatively planning to get married summer 07 (the summer between MS1 and MS2 for me...he will be at a city college). i am curious how you guys all were able to pay for everything if you didn't have much parental financial healp. neither of our parents will be able to help us out much. since i will be taking out loans for school, and chances are that he will too, i have been thinking about waiting until school is all over and we have some sort of income. we're not wanting anything super extravagent, but it seems like it gets expensive quick, and we would like our close friends and family to be able to celebrate with us. any thoughts? did anyone just add to their loans?

our parents are only helping us out minimally. so, we are keeping everything cheap (whole wedding will be under $10k). We will mostly use loans to cover this. My fiance, however, will have a job in a year (not in medicine) and will be able to start paying it off then (and i won't have take out as large loans)..

 

[LaFondaDynamite]

I am a MS4, graduating tomorrow, wahoo. Anyways, I married another MS4 this past year right before interviews started. We delayed our honeymoon until after we were finished with all our rotations since we were pretty busy applying and preparing for our interviews. A few friends were on away rotations, but fourth year is a pretty easy time to get married IMO.

 

[PreMedAdAG]

Yea i think there are so many different ideas out there... so far this is what I've been told...

Before first year 🙂 guess that's already passed
In between first and second years
Winter Break of 2nd Year
After the Boards of 2nd Year
End of Fourth Year <--- this is the option I"m looking at. I'm a woman and I really want to put a lot of effort into my wedding. I like throwing parties and if I can't throw in "oprah" style, it's not worth it. A woman at my school arranged her fourth year schedule so she was done by the end of april. She got married and went on a honeymoon until her June graduation date. I think this is the coolest idea.

Also, i want to enjoy the first year of marriage!! Being a first year, second or third year can cause total emotional distress. I want to happily enjoy the bliss of just getting married, not rushing out the door at 3:30am on a Saturday 🙂

 

[jennyboo]

i'm a 3rd year dental student and my gf is a 1st year med student. we've been going out for 3 years now, and we're starting to decide when the right time to get married is. i'd loved to get married soon...

she's extrememly stressed out about the whole situation and feels that the only time available is this winter (2nd year) or 3rd year residency, notice the 6 year gap.

are there any other potential times in between? could a marriage be done say before/after step 1?

thanks.

Any time. I'm in my fourth and last year of med school and I just got married last month. 😛 Times that were pretty good in my schedule were:

1) Summer after M1 (first) year
2) M4 year, 2nd half -- great for getting married, everyone takes off all over the world after interviews are done. Especially after the residency match results come out.

3) Any time M3-M4 when you've fulfilled your bare minimum requirements and gotten letters of recommendation for applying for residency.

Residency -- plenty of people get married during residency too -- elective months can be good.

Bottom line, you just have to decide when and commit to making it happen. Times I wouldn't recommend getting married:

1) The time between end of M2 and start of M3 when studying for USMLE Step 1.

2) November thru January of M4 when applying and interviewing for residency.

At my school we had 10 weeks of unassigned vacation time (not even including breaks between quarters & Christmas) during M3 and M4 -- plenty of time to get married and go traveling for a few weeks.

You could potentially have a wedding after Step 1 but... my last two weeks before the wedding were that much MORE stressful than any board exam that I can't imagine what it would've been like having the wedding hanging over the only board exam whose score really MATTERS for residency applications. I'd rather plan my wedding during a light clerkship (family medicine, psychiatry, possibly pediatrics are relatively light... electives like radiology, anesthesia, other office-based stuff also light) and have it afterward than after Step 1.

 

[deuist]

Why do Vegas when one of your friends can get ordained as a minister instantly from the Universal Life Church? Valid in every state, a ULC ordination will allow your friend to perform the marriage ceremony. No need to hassle with churches, families, finding the perfect reception spot.

 

[anthoncr]

I think the main thing is ask students at her school and talk to the student advisor in her Dean's office. Both of you really need to know what the workload is for her specific program.

I married the love of my life two weeks ago and today is the last day of my second year of medical school. I planned it this way mostly because the above references told me the final class is a fairly light load. Given the reprieve we were able to make a 300+ person wedding work. We did have a wedding planner, make sure you get one of these.

Our day was perfect, I could not have waited to my 4th year. Don't get married within plus or minus five weeks of her step 1.

i'm a 3rd year dental student and my gf is a 1st year med student. we've been going out for 3 years now, and we're starting to decide when the right time to get married is. i'd loved to get married soon...

she's extrememly stressed out about the whole situation and feels that the only time available is this winter (2nd year) or 3rd year residency, notice the 6 year gap.

are there any other potential times in between? could a marriage be done say before/after step 1?

thanks.

 

[chopper]

Elope. Low stress and you can get married on any weekend you want.

 

[lilnoelle]

About costs... I managed to have a simple, but traditional wedding (church, reception, pictures, cake, dress, etc) for less than $3000. I could've probably done it for less than $2000, but spent a little more on a few things than I originally thought. Keeping things simple can be difficult, but it is possible to have a nice wedding for a decent price. It depends on how much your committed to keeping it simple (and how strong your will power is, because everyone will have recommendations and ideas and if you follow them, it gets pretty costly fast)

 

[Katya00]

I'm getting married right after first year too! 😍

I won't get done until June though, and we planned our wedding for the week after. That's going to be crazy

 

[Dr.LeoSpaceman]

I guess my situation is slightly different, but I have been dating my girlfriend for 5 years, and I am currently at the end of MS1. We are planning to get married after MS3 for me, though it helps because I am planning to take a year off to do research. So whether its at the beginning or end of that research year, I have no clue. But I guess that fits in line with "between 3rd and 4th year".