Campus dating

People in the rain. Photo by Angela Gzowski

From Turkey Dumps to LikeALittle

For the girls and boys coming into Dalhousie this year single and looking: life has the potential to be very, very good.

For the extroverts, there are always the perennial favourites such as residence parties, Frosh events and off-campus keggers—classic meet-up spots.

But for the shyer folk, there are other options. LikeALittle.com, a free, flirty, university-oriented website, exists solely to let people make a move without actually having to move at all.

Catch a glimpse of a strong and silent type across the room but don’t have the guts to walk over and start a conversation? Log on to LikeALittle.com/dal and leave a note.

“Tall, oh so tall. You in a hoodie made me feel rather floopy,” says one note about a redhead at the Dentistry Building.

“You have blonde hair, and I’m pretty sure you are from Toronto. Name starts with A. Truly the most gorgeous girl I’ve ever seen. Wish you knew I existed,” says another.

There’s a version of LikeALittle for most universities all over the world. Anonymous users choose the gender of their crush, then narrow it down to location on campus and hair colour and leave their message.

Dalhousie itself offers no university dating service, but Dr. David Mensink of Dal Counselling Services doesn’t think such a service is necessary.

“There are so many more options now than there have been before, just because of social networking,” he says. “Lavalife. Match.com. Facebook. Need I go on?”

For those starting their university life with a partner, school gets trickier. Sean MacKinnon, a PhD student in psychology at Dalhousie, conducted a study last year that revealed some trends in university relationships.

“I’m going to call it a ‘true love’ theme, for lack of a better term,” he says of the stories he heard. “They had a really great summer and now it’s going to be a long-distance relationship, but that’s OK because they have a really wonderful, close relationship and even though it doesn’t work for other people, it’ll totally work for them.”

“It’s a little sad in light of the fact that a lot of them do end up breaking up, and we’re going to be following up on that,” he said after the first phase of his study.

The infamous ‘turkey dump,’ the Thanksgiving break-up that occurs once long-distance becomes too much to handle, is a fear in the back of many a Frosh’s mind.

But in his experience, Mensink says the number of relationships he hears of ending aren’t special to Frosh. “It’s not limited to first years and not more frequent than any other year, be it third year or medical school or graduate studies,” he says.

The later phases of MacKinnon’s study back Mensink up: only about 17 per cent of the students he interviewed broke up at least once during their freshman year.

So regardless of relationship status, relax. And take the advice given to a “blonde guy” on LikeALittle: “Life is short, live it. Love is rare, grab it.”