Wedding during 4th Year

Started by pdmaes
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pdmaes

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Hello, I have a question regarding getting married during MS4 year. Most of the questions I've seen regarding this are more applicable to people doing couple's match, or getting married to another medical student/doctor and wanting to stay at the same hospital, but if my question is redundant, I apologize for not searching for the correct threads on here!

My fiance and I are planning on getting married sometime during 4th year. I know some of what goes on as far as scheduling 4th year, but everything since I've only just recently started my 3rd year rotations. We are considering either August/September of 2019, or spring after match (April, May) of 2020. We like the idea of a late summer/fall wedding, but I know that may be a busy time with AIs, ERAS, etc. Does anyone have an experience/opinions about how feasible a wedding during that time period is? Also, would being married before interviews start have any influence on residency match? (As in, if I want to stay in the same city where I'm at, will the residency programs care that my non-medical spouse has a job in that city?)

If late summer/fall of 4th year is likely to be very complicated or stressful, we'll probably just get married post-match.

TL;DR when is the best time during 4th year to get married, and does that have any influence on the residency match? Thank you!
 
I got married at the end of a MS4 (graduation in June, married at the start of May). My wife is not in medicine. We ended up having our wedding across the country in our hometown, so we also did a bunch of planning remotely and a couple of trips to scope out venues and vendors.

Planning a wedding is not all that difficult, particularly if it’s not going to be a huge affair and if you have help from other family members. The main issue for us was cost. We did a fairly cheap wedding - probably $10k total - and it was still fairly tight financially. But the planning itself was fairly stress-free. If you’re dedicated, you can get the major details (e.g., wedding, catering, +/- other vendors) sorted out in a couple of weekends. The rest is just small details that you work out over time.
 
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I got married in August at the beginning of the 4th year. It was really nice because we had almost an entire chill year of being married. She had a job and I was taking a few electives and occasionally traveling for interviews. It was great.

Then came internship which was hell. I would reommmend being able to spend as much time together as possible before the grind that is residency begins.
 
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Post match will be the best but if you're set on having a late summer or early fall wedding then September (after you submit ERAS) could work. Even August is feasible if you have all your ducks in a row (letters, personal statement, etc) by then.
 
EDIT: I misunderstood the advice I was given. A friend told me I needed the 3 (or 4 depending on the program) required letters of rec before most programs will consider me for interviews, and I thought she meant I needed to have completed all 3 of my school's required acting internships before interviews. Misread a text, because communication via text is never very clear :laugh: They said as long as I have all my letters of recommendation in by the time interview invitations start going out, I should be okay. We're thinking that a wedding in between ERAS opening for submission and the start of interview season will be the best scenario for us. Thanks again everyone for your advice and input! But if anyone else have any other thoughts please share! 🙂

zanzizic said:
I got married in August at the beginning of the 4th year. It was really nice because we had almost an entire chill year of being married. She had a job and I was taking a few electives and occasionally traveling for interviews. It was great.

Then came internship which was hell. I would reommmend being able to spend as much time together as possible before the grind that is residency begins.
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Thanks everyone for your feedback! My fiance and I would really love to do a late September wedding if possible. Zanzizic - because you got married in August, were you able to finish all your AIs before you submitted ERAS? A friend at my school said a fall wedding would probably not allow for me to finish all 3 AIs before submitting ERAS, and this would mark my application as “incomplete”, which some programs frowned upon (as in they may not offer interviews to students that haven’t completed all 3 AIs). I have an OK step score but if getting married in the fall puts me at a disadvantage for residency then I’m not sure I can swing it. (Note - I have no idea what i want to do yet but internal medicine and anesthesiology are at the top of my list)
 
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The sooner the better. As noted above, this is your chill year; spend it married and enjoying yourselves as husband and wife. Get in as much time as possible before going through hell starting intern year. Plan it while you have more time and do it before the match.
 
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