Online dating is for the socially awkward and inept, right? So why are dating websites everywhere and being targeted to everyone? There are dating sites for people of different races, religions, levels of attractiveness, and socioeconomic statuses. Even pets have a dating site where owners can hook them up as if pets need help with that sort of thing. The most recent target is college students – the epitome of socially awkward. Read on to see a new dating site exclusively for college students.
If Match.com and Facebook (in its early years) had a baby, then Date My School would be the result. The dating site is exclusive to college students and allows them to see the profiles of people at their school or nearby schools. My University of North Florida profile allowed me to see all public Florida universities. I doubt I’d travel from North Florida all the way to Tampa for a hot guy, but it’s nice to ogle.
Founders Balazs Alexa and Jean Meyer launched the site in November 2010 to just Columbia University with 1,300 members in its first week. Now it includes over 140 schools with 20,000 members.
Date My School has some cool perks for students. You can find a reason to talk the girl you Facebook stalked in English Literature or have a reason to befriend the cute know-it-all from Business Management. If you’re not up to dating, you can request a study partner from someone in your major.
One great thing about the site is its privacy settings. As a college student, one tends to feel kind of lame seeking love online (though, ironically, we seek everything else online), but with Date My School’s privacy settings you can ban students of certain schools from seeing your profile. Even better, you can allow only students in a certain major or department to see your profile.
I’m still riding the fence about Date My School because I don’t think college students need yet another reason to sit behind a computer or get lost in a smartphone all day, but it’s a site that would work for anyone looking to meet new people from their school or surrounding schools. Online dating – 1, getting to know people in real life – 0.
