Freshman year is a time for a lot of things, from roommate struggles to finding passion in your major, eating too much dining hall food to drinking too much Jungle Juice in a frat house basement. Stuck somewhere in the midst of the freshman year experience is dating, and every college freshman has a very similar dating experience. Dating as a college freshman is messy, confusing, and full of a lot of hormones. Rarely does it involve finding the love of your life, and it almost always involves one too many blocked numbers.
Heading to college in the fall? Before you can fully say you're ready for the college dating scene, please be aware of the eleven dates every college freshman will go on during their first year.
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1. The first Tinder date.
Give it a couple weeks, and no matter how much they've sworn it off, every freshman will have Tinder on their phone. After swiping and chatting for a few days, they'll meet up with their first Tinder date over a nice dinner of chicken strips and fries in the closest dining hall. Romantic, isn't it?
2. The first Tinder hookup.
No one is safe from hookup culture. No one. No matter how long they try to push off hookups by meeting up for dinner or refusing to take their Tinder matches back to their room, eventually someone will strike them a certain way and they'll jump right in bed.
3. The date with someone on their floor/in their building.
After a couple of ice breaker activities before classes even start, every freshman will find themselves eyeing someone on their floor or living somewhere else in their building. Maybe their fun fact really got their attention, or they found out they only actually live about twenty minutes from each other back home. Either way, dating someone on your floor is a terrible idea because when things go south, you'll be stuck still seeing them every day after. Good luck.
4. The orientation buddy date.
When incoming freshmen are around people their age for the first time, free from the supervision of their parents, the hormones run wild. There's bound to be someone in their orientation group that grabs their attention. Maybe they'll grab dinner after a long day of lectures, class scheduling, and ice breakers, or maybe they'll just exchange numbers, text all summer, and then meet up after move-in. Either way, this one will leave freshmen longing for the fairytale, but probably a little disappointed.
5. The first-week date.
Similar to the orientation date, this date will be filled with the innocent, naïve butterflies of the beginning of college. This date could be with someone met in class, in the dorms, or just at a random party or campus event. No matter how they meet them, this one will be cute, but surely short-lived.
6. The class date.
Sometimes, we just really have chemistry with someone from our bio lab and can't help but want to get to know them better. Approach all class dates with caution, because no one, no matter how cute, funny, or kind, is worth making every Tuesday & Thursday miserable because you're stuck trying to avoid eye contact with them if at all possible.
7. The date with someone older than them.
Upperclassmen really shouldn't be chasing after freshmen, yet here we are. There's just something about fraternity letters and a twenty-year-old smile that sends freshmen running. Although this one surely won't last, it's always some sort of wild ride.
8. The post-party date.
They met over Jungle Juice and made out in the corner until their friends drug them home in separate directions. After the hangover has settled, they'll find themselves linking back up to chill in someone's dorm room. They'll probably get what they wanted from the night before, and they'll soon find out they surely weren't meant to be.
9. The date that leaves them heartbroken.
We all have that one person that we really, really wish things would work out with, but for one reason or another, they just don't. This leaves us devastated and probably listening to "I Fall Apart" one too many times while ugly crying into our ice cream. Every freshman will reach this point, even though it is pretty low.
10. The date that ghosts them.
Ah, ghosting. Arguably one of the most immature dating trends out there, it wouldn't be someone's freshman year of college without a little immaturity!
11. The TERRIBLE date.
Maybe they picked their nose at the dinner table, spent the entire time talking about their ex, overshared their ignorant political opinions, or just all-in-all were a complete snooze fest. Either way, a terrible date will leave every freshman wishing they never said yes to dinner. It's just THAT bad.
