3 ms·

Obviously one is not restricted to dating inside the same college. Typically the dating environment is the entire community. It can be a good place to meet peop

Obviously one is not restricted to dating inside the same college. Typically the dating environment is the entire community. It can be a good place to meet people of the same age though. Young women tend (at peak physical beauty) to have an edge in the dating market over young men (at lowest status), so it’s not even guaranteed that it would make things worse.

gnicholas 3y ago
This is more true at some schools than others. Many schools are pretty insular and dating outside of the school is quite uncommon. This was true for the liberal arts college where I went to school, even though it was not geographically isolated. It is definitely true for isolated schools (Williams).
tzs 3y ago
There is nothing forbidding dating outside the same college in most cases, but it can be very impractical. At my school for example, Caltech, the work load was very high leaving limited time for social activities, only a small fraction of students had cars, public transit was not very good, and there weren't many places within walking distance of campus you'd be likely to meet potential dates. At the time (~1980) among undergraduates Caltech was about 15% female, 85% male. There were probably some who did make off campus dating work but I never heard about it. Even if a significant fraction could make off campus dating work, with that much of an on campus imbalance the ratio of the remaining males looking for an on campus date to on campus females would still likely be large and that's pretty annoying for everyone, but especially so for the women who if they were not currently dating were being constantly hit on.
- slashdev 3y ago
  I hear you, but college admissions should not be tailored to make dating easier. There’s arguably more important things at stake here. If you value dating above all else, send your kids to a party college.
  - tzs 3y ago
    It's not a matter of valuing dating above all else. It's a matter of realizing that your students are going to live at your school for 4 years and have limited opportunities to socialize off campus, and that if campus can not provide a somewhat normal social life academic performance will suffer.
    - slashdev 3y ago
      I don’t think I accept your premise that more balanced dating equals better academic performance. Seems unlikely.
    - gnicholas 3y ago
      > if campus can not provide a somewhat normal social life academic performance will suffer. Or students simply will choose to go to a different school, where dating prospects are better.

gnicholas 3y ago

This is more true at some schools than others. Many schools are pretty insular and dating outside of the school is quite uncommon. This was true for the liberal arts college where I went to school, even though it was not geographically isolated. It is definitely true for isolated schools (Williams).

tzs 3y ago

There is nothing forbidding dating outside the same college in most cases, but it can be very impractical. At my school for example, Caltech, the work load was very high leaving limited time for social activities, only a small fraction of students had cars, public transit was not very good, and there weren't many places within walking distance of campus you'd be likely to meet potential dates. At the time (~1980) among undergraduates Caltech was about 15% female, 85% male. There were probably some who did make off campus dating work but I never heard about it. Even if a significant fraction could make off campus dating work, with that much of an on campus imbalance the ratio of the remaining males looking for an on campus date to on campus females would still likely be large and that's pretty annoying for everyone, but especially so for the women who if they were not currently dating were being constantly hit on.

slashdev 3y ago
I hear you, but college admissions should not be tailored to make dating easier. There’s arguably more important things at stake here. If you value dating above all else, send your kids to a party college.
- tzs 3y ago
  It's not a matter of valuing dating above all else. It's a matter of realizing that your students are going to live at your school for 4 years and have limited opportunities to socialize off campus, and that if campus can not provide a somewhat normal social life academic performance will suffer.
  - slashdev 3y ago
    I don’t think I accept your premise that more balanced dating equals better academic performance. Seems unlikely.
  - gnicholas 3y ago
    > if campus can not provide a somewhat normal social life academic performance will suffer. Or students simply will choose to go to a different school, where dating prospects are better.