Online dating, once an awkward — if not downright socially stigmatized — way to search for a soulmate, has made its way into the mainstream college dating scene: 11 percent of NYU undergraduates now use the site DateMySchool.com to find anything from one-night stands to long-term relationships.
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2,071 NYU undergraduates and 900 graduate students have made profiles since the site, created by Columbia business students Jean Meyer and Balazs Alexa, went live at NYU. Like many of his peers, NYU sophomore and DateMySchool public relations coordinator Greg Jacobs found out about the company by word of mouth.
"I was at a friend's house and I saw that she was glued to her computer screen," Jacobs said. "I had experienced how addictive the site could be, and more of my friends started creating profiles. I knew the company was going to grow and I wanted to be a part of it."
The site is exclusive to users that have .edu email addresses, keeping access to the site for students only — something students like Jane Ji, a senior film student at NYU, can appreciate.
"The site is very specific," Ji said. "It caters to its goal of dating and making social connections. The site is limited in a good way — it's not just an open-ended way to post pictures and status updates."
Samantha Warbling, a senior psychology major in the College of Arts and Science, created a profile with no expectations in mind but rather to familiarize herself with the website that many of friends had started using.
"It can be hard meeting new people, especially as a transfer student," Warbling said. "I was not on the site at first to find a date but the more I've used it the more I can see the prospects of finding a real relationship."
For students that find the idea of running into acquaintances from the website a turn-off, DateMySchool.com has exclusivity features unique to this type of social media. For instance, NYU users can make their profiles invisible to other NYU students, making the possibility of running into an awkward date partner nearly impossible.
This past Saturday, the site launched at both Yale and Princeton University. On March 28, students at Harvard, Boston University, MIT, Boston College and Tufts University will also have access.
CAS sophomore Patrick McGee said he doesn't feel college students should have to resort to meeting potential dates online.
"I feel like being a student, especially in New York City, we should be able to create friendships and find dates using our own social skills, not by scanning through profiles online," McGee said.
According to Shreshth Dugar, another employee at DateMySchool.com, nearly 125 students from NYU create profiles daily, and the number is only increasing.
