Dating website caters to college students

 College students are extremely busy with hours of homework, multiple extracurricular clubs and organizations, part-time or even full-time jobs, and planning for their future careers through internships and other activities. With all of that work, one can only imagine just how hard it may be for college students to find a potential boyfriend or girlfriend at the same time.

   Sites such as eHarmony, Match and Zoosk are only a few of the many dating websites available on the Internet today. However, these websites are not exactly helpful for college students looking for relationships because they do not target university student users.

   It was not until November, 2010 that a brand-new unique dating website called DateMySchool was created by Columbia University students Balazs Alexa and Jean Meyer.

   According to the DateMySchool representative Melanie Wallner, this is when Alexa and Meyer initially got the idea for the website.

   The students were "talking to a girl who was involved in the nursing program at Columbia. She had complained that it was a challenge to meet guys at the nursing school because the nursing school is 80 percent female," Wallner said.

   This was the starting point for the network.

   "The founders, who attended the business school that enrolled a majority of males, then decided that they should create a website to make it easier for girls and guys from different departments at college to meet each other," Wallner said.

   These two students believed that there should be a dating website that exclusively targets university students. 

   By August 17, 2011 350 schools were on board, one of which was Marist. 

   To date, the site has expanded to over 800 different colleges and universities nationwide, with 75,000 users.

   The website eventually expanded to New York University, and its popularity eventually garnered coverage by The New York Times, Wallner said. This "just launched the website's popularity."

   When a student first enters the website, they are met with a tutorial video on the left-hand side of the screen that explains why the website was created, why it should be used, and how to use it. 

   In order to maintain the website's promise to only target university students, the video explains that a user can only sign up to the website with their college or university e-mail address. According to the video, "This requirement does two things: it ensures that people are who they say they are…and it keeps out the creepers."

   The video continues to explain that while creating an online dating profile, a student can narrow their potential relationship search by choosing certain schools in whichever areas they please, choosing which departments of the school they would like to find potential dates, choosing the age range of the person, and choosing anything else they wish to find in a potential lover.

   The website is also extremely private. A student does not have to worry about being embarrassed for having a dating profile because it is unsearchable. A student's profile can only be seen by whomever the student allows. According to the site's tutorial video, "not even Google can see it!"

   DateMySchool is a new phenomenon that is sure to have a lot of users and expand to even more colleges in the nation. Despite the website's name however, it  does not only have to be used for dating purposes.

   Wallner said that she has "heard back from people who simply use the site to find good friends or study partners. This site is a great tool for college students because college is a time when you want to connect with people, and DateMySchool allows you to do just that."

*Correction: The original print issue of this article lists August 17, 2011 as the site's launch date. The correct date was November, 2010.