Campus dating
By Pat Healy
Dating is not outdated. At least not according to the college kids we spoke to. In a recent survey conducted by the metro we found that most single college students had been on dates in the past few months, and many of them even thought that dating was preferable to drunken hook-ups. It’s true!
“It is a little bit old fashioned,” says MIT senior Ramon Cavazos, “but I kinda like it that way because if I’m actually going to spend the effort and money on a date, it shows that I have a little bit more interest in the person than just hanging out with them on campus.”
Tori Botticelli, a senior at BC whose most recent date was to the Museum of Science’s Pink Floyd laser show, says dating is an essential part of any good relationship process.
“It’s an important way to get to know someone in a different aspect,” she says.
Nick MacDonald, a junior at Berklee School of Music says he likes to know someone first before he would ask that person on a date, whether they be classmates or a friend of a friend.
Emily Riehl, a junior at Harvard, agrees.
“I just try to be myself so things aren’t awkward afterwards,” she says.
Riehl, who is currently dating a Harvard woman, says she doesn’t usually go for people outside of her school.
“It’s just easier to be dating someone from your own college,” she says. “Otherwise, you’re always trying to be in two places at once.”
Not all area students feel this way though. Cavazos says he has much better luck with the ladies outside of MIT.
“There’s a good portion of students here who aren’t very social and they don’t go out,” he says. “And there’s a large portion that aren’t attractive.”
Ouch.
Emerson students often look for love on other campuses too.
“The problem with Emerson is that all the cream-of-the-crop girls go for med students or BU students,” says senior Adam Malamut.
Fellow Emerson senior Rachel Goldberg says there is a reason for that.
“There’s a high percentage of gay males here,” she says. “and if they’re not gay, they’re usually either taken or they’re assholes.”
Ouch, again.
Where do these dating students go on their dates?
“The Other Side Café or something like that,” says Northeastern junior Billy Bonner.
“Along the water, up by the airport near the wharf,” says Emerson senior Melissa Gaynor.
“King’s,” says Emerson’s Goldberg, about the bowling alley bar by the Prudential.
“Probably watching a movie in someone’s room,” reasons Riehl. “If you’re in the movie theaters you have to leave as soon as the picture’s over, but if you are at home you can stay up and talk as long as you want.”
Almost all of the students cite the North End as a good date place too.
With all of this dating, whatever happened to the proverbial drunken college hookup that we see so often in the movies? Does it still happen?
“If somebody is totally intoxicated, I’m like, ‘eww, gross,’” says Botticelli.
“I’m just not the type of girl that hooks up randomly,” says Goldberg. “I’ve got a little more self control than that.”
Emerson’s Malamut has a slightly different admission.
“I can’t remember the last time I kissed a girl sober,” he says. | 