Why UChicago’s Dating Culture is Sh*t

When you talk to UChicago students about their dating lives, you almost invariably get one response ‘it’s pretty s***’.

Within the UChicago community, only a small percentage of students are actually in relationships. Out of 70 randomly sampled students, only ~10% of them were in relationships. Interestingly, UChicago also does not have much hookup culture. Students say one-night stands are generally hard to come by.

So why is dating so difficult at UChicago?

A Small Oversupply of Guys → Poor Hookup Culture

The average school in the US has a gender ratio of 43% male and 57% female. This means that there are ~36% more women than men at the average college. These schools with a great abundance of women and lack of men report a rampant hook-up culture rife with one-night stands and women getting dumped after not even weeks but days. Very few men feel the need to enter monogamous relationships, and thus, this culture seems to perpetuate throughout each college.

UChicago exhibits a ratio of 52% male to 48% female. This means that there are ~8% more men than women. This means that UChicago is quite far from the average American university. Men are in small oversupply, and the dating scene is not one that’s rife with hookups and one-night stands.

A Small University

At UChicago, the undergraduate population is ~6,500, average for a private university but significantly less than most public universities. UCLA and UC Berkeley, two of the best public universities in the US, have undergraduate populations of ~30,000 each.

Especially because of House culture, UChicago seems to inevitably breed small groups of friends that end up spending their entire lives with each other. A second year Economics major says, “Everyone ends up knowing everyone within about four to five weeks of freshman year.” In some ways this is great, friendships are stronger, and people form genuine, long-term connections with the people around them. However, in terms of dating it makes meeting new people difficult for everyone.

Even acknowledging this problem is not the solution. A second-year Art History major says, “You can try and meet new people but UChicago remains somewhat clique-y.” UChicago seems to be caught in a loop of people inevitably hanging out with the same people almost every week and, in that way, any sort of dating culture is hard to come by. Sure, some people will enter into relationships with their friends. Yet, as meeting new people ends up being difficult, truly “new” relationships are hard to come by.

Lack of Interaction with Other Universities

At UChicago, students rarely interact with students at other universities. Part of it is location. UChicago is located in South Side Chicago, a 45-minute subway ride to downtown.

This is not made any easier by the reluctance of UChicago students to interact with anyone from another institution. Partially due to the amount of work people end up doing and perhaps the University’s national rankings students feel like they are better than those from other colleges. “Everyone at UChicago seems to have a superiority complex.”

So, while people complain about their dating lives at the same time, they appear to refuse opportunities to interact with the wider community in Chicago. UChicago exhibits a very unique form of elitism, they will constantly complain about the university but refuse to respect anyone from a nearby college.

If UChicago students did interact with other universities, the dating culture would be very different. Loyola University and Columbia College in Chicago, for example, are more traditional in their dating culture. Loyola, for example, has an undergraduate population of ~12k and a 33% male, 67% female gender ratio. Columbia College has a smaller undergraduate population with 20% male and 80% female.

Because of the gender ratio, these schools have rampant hookup culture, and more relationships are formed in general. Significant interaction with these other universities would likely increase both relationships and hookups among the UChicago student body.

At Harvard, this is the case. While Harvard boasts similar population and gender demographics as UChicago, the key difference is that Harvard students interact with non-Harvard students. It is not rare for Harvard, MIT, Wellesley, Boston College, and Boston University students (among others) to mingle at parties. “There were more nights than I’d like to admit when I woke up in a Boston College dorm,” says a male Harvard student.

Conclusion

Many people at UChicago feel insecure about their dating lives. It’s important not to feel that way.

The problem with dating at UChicago has nothing to do with the people themselves. Things like demographics and location play a big role in a school’s dating culture.

I think the UChicago dating scene would drastically improve if people started interacting with nearby universities like Loyola University and Columbia College. UChicago students should not limit their social life to just UChicago students.

That’s one of the goals with Realtalk. We aim to breach this apparent “barrier” between the different Chicago universities with our super authentic dating app. You can also sign up for our Zoom date nights, where we mix students from different universities. I view this as a problem that can be solved, it simply requires a change of attitude from the student population.

Realtalk is a dating app for college students to get to know one another. Users leave 30 second videos, answering fun, playful questions — and those videos encompass their dating profile. No BS, just Realtalk. Download it today.

Originally published at https://realtalkapp.co.