Dating: In College vs. The Real World

I spent much of my spring break in NYC visiting friends and doing job interviews. One night when I was out to dinner with friends, a Penn State alum made a comment that I found interesting. He said that dating in college made it easier to stay faithful and be committed than it is to be faithful when dating in New York becuase of the amount of people and things to do. That got me thinking just about just how easy or hard is it to date in college? From what I’ve seen, most people want to stay single in college and focus on dating before or after.

I’ve had three relationships in college and they’ve all fizzled out for one reason or another. I’ve gone out on lots of dates and casually hung out with lots of people, and clearly those didn’t turn into anything. Does this have anything to do with our age and with our surroundings? Or was it just that we weren’t compatible matches and there wasn’t any bond strong enough to connect us?

On Askmen.com I found some interesting takes on both sides. One man said that dating outside of college was easier because he was more finacially secure and set in his lifestyle. Another said that once you’re not surrounded by the frat guys who want to “hook up with chicks” that dating is a lot easier also. One interesting point I took away from the site was that in college we spend so much time studying that we end up missing out on a lot of possible dating ventures as well.

Situational factors need to be taken into account, too. As we get older our parents pressure us to start settling down and we become influenced by our friends who start getting married and having children. In college, it seems more people are on the same wavelength. Another factor that makes dating in college difficult is that you don’t know where you’re going to end up after graduation! If you don’t have a job in place yet, you could live far away from where you attend school which could make dating difficult as well.

I suppose the case is different for everyone, and has a lot to do with the personalities of the men and women involved. This alumni was also living in a heavily populated place in which he works in the service industry and is surrounded by new faces constantly. But that doesn’t go for everyone once they graduate. Hey, there’s always match.com, right?