When you enter a college classroom, you don’t typically expect to sit next to a student with a ring on their finger. But being married in college isn’t as uncommon as many assume. WashU is proof of this with quite a few members of the student body who are married or already engaged.

Ha-Ya Davis-Bennett

Senior Ha-Ya Davis-Bennett met her husband, Spencer, at 18 while working at a Raising Cane’s in Hammond, Louisiana, right outside her hometown of Baton Rouge. The two dated for six months before getting engaged, right around the time that Davis-Bennett decided to attend WashU. 

“I was very adamant about leaving Louisiana and just expanding my horizons, experiencing something new … and during the time that we were dating, he reassured me that this is going to be forever and that he was going to follow me wherever I decided to go,” Davis-Bennett said.

The two legally married in 2022, right before Davis-Bennett began at WashU. However, they had a larger ceremony with family and friends in June 2023 at a “fancy barn house” in Louisiana.

While Spencer was eventually able to find a permanent job in St. Louis, the two spent Davis-Bennett’s first semester as a long-distance couple.

“I did constantly miss him, and I constantly also [refrained] from going out with friends and going to some events because I was like, ‘Actually, I’m going to call my man,’ ‘Actually, I want to go home,’” Davis-Bennett said. “So, I feel like [in] my first semester, I really didn’t build a lot of those initial connections that people made.” 

However, when Spencer did move to St. Louis, Davis-Bennett shared that things improved immensely, and that she was able to experience “the best of both worlds.” In fact, WashU even let Davis-Bennett and her husband live together off campus when he arrived for her second semester.

The best of both worlds, however, comes with unique dynamics that single college students don’t have to think about.

“A lot of my friends have the freedom to do what they want, when they want, how they want,” Davis-Bennett said. “[If] they want to go somewhere, they’re going to go. I’m not saying that I don’t have that autonomy — I  definitely do, but it comes with other boundaries, like communicating with my husband.”

Overall, Davis-Bennett is so grateful to have done all four years of college alongside her husband and best friend and is excited to stay in St. Louis postgrad with Spencer.

“[He is my] built-in best friend … [and is] constantly pushing me to be better, whether that’s emotionally, intellectually or spiritually; I just feel like he helps me be a better version of myself,” Davis-Bennett said. “So having that for the rest of my life, I’m really excited to see what our future will hold for us.” 

Brooke Sanchez

Unlike Davis-Bennett, junior Brooke Sanchez met her now-fiance as a sophomore at WashU. 

“We took a class last year together. … He took an interest in me the very first time he saw me in that seminar circle,” Sanchez said. “He waited about a couple weeks when the semester started to actually come up and talk to me.”

Their story began when her fiance tapped her on the shoulder and asked her on a date. They have spent every day together since.

The two have lived together since the beginning of their relationship, but not exactly on purpose. Sanchez’s fiance was going to lose his apartment if he didn’t fill the spot his roommates left when they went abroad for the semester, so Sanchez took a room in his apartment for logistical purposes.

“Since we started living together pretty early in the marriage process, the idea of marriage and stuff was something that we always kind of tossed around and played with,” Sanchez said. “We were just kind of making a lot of sacrifices with each other to make sure that we could stay together, and through those sacrifices I think it kind of solidified in our minds that we really wanted to stay together for a long time.” 

Today, Sanchez and her fiance live with their two cats: Rocky, who they rescued during their time abroad in the Canary Islands, and Primero. The islands hold a special place in the couple’s hearts, as it’s where Sanchez’s fiance popped the question. 

“It just felt very organic, like he’s very sure of what he wants and he was very sure that I was the person that he wanted as his partner, and I was very sure as well,” Sanchez said.

For Sanchez, having a long-term significant other at WashU didn’t really change much about her college experience. As someone who never really enjoyed attending parties and much preferred hanging out with a small, intimate group of friends, she was happy to have someone she could go home to everyday who shared similar values.

“[When] we met it was just like, wow, I’ve found this other person who totally understands the kind of college experience I want versus the traditional one that everybody says I should have,” Sanchez said. 

While most of the reactions Sanchez has gotten to her engagement have been positive, some people have shared concerns. But Sanchez has no doubt she made the right decision.

“Some people will be like, ‘Oh [you’re] so young, go see the world,’” Sanchez said. “But the way we see it is, we’re seeing the world together.”

Abagale Berger 

Senior Abagale Berger also met her fiance at WashU. For him, it was love at first sight. For her, not so much — but mostly because she couldn’t actually see his face. 

Berger met Noah, her fiance, for the first time on a Zoom interview for a club she was trying to join. Because the interviews were anonymous, Noah had his camera turned off, so only he could see her. When she later joined the club, he chose her to be his little, already in love with her. 

“I [used] the club as an excuse to text him, and then after that, the rest is history,” Berger said. 

Berger and Noah got engaged in March 2026. Noah decided to propose over a spring break trip to Charleston at Cypress Gardens, the setting of a famous scene from the movie “The Notebook.” 

“Our path was definitely anything but traditional, but I think that’s what worked for us,” Berger said. “We are not conventional people at all.”

Noah is a year older than Berger and is currently studying law at St. Louis University. After graduation, Berger will stay at WashU for law school, and the two are planning on getting married in Clayton, where Berger grew up, in July 2027.  

“The stars really aligned,” Berger said. “And I know everybody says that, and it’s very cliche, but … it definitely is a love story for sure.”