UF students may be lucky in finding love online.
The university was ranked No. 11 in the Top 25 Colleges for Online Dating in 2015, according to The Grade, an online dating application, in its inaugural list.
The top 25 colleges with the most app users were analyzed to find which school had the highest-quality online dating pool, said account supervisor Kayla Inserra. The data was divided into categories such as “like” rate, message quality, response rate and late-night swiping.
Cliff Lerner, founder and CEO of The Grade, wrote in an email that an algorithm computes a score based on a user’s profile content, quality of messages and response rate. A school’s grade reflects the average score of its students.
UF received an overall grade of A- , and 31 percent of these single Gators have a grade of A- or higher, according to the rankings.
“Not only is the University of Florida the state’s hardest public university to get into, but it may also be the hardest school to get a date in. … Are they playing hard-to-get or just plain picky?” the website wrote.
Sarah Brown, 20, met her boyfriend in October on OKCupid. However, she had reservations about online and social media dating at first.
“Some guys — and I’m sure girls do the same thing — but they Internet creep with online dating,” the UF public relations sophomore said.
Lerner said The Grade is working to improve the online dating experience by holding users accountable for their behavior.
“Although we didn’t cater toward college singles specifically,” he said, “we’re not surprised that college singles seem to be embracing the concept of accountability as college-aged singles are the biggest offenders in contributing to bad experiences online.”
Brown said she thinks online and mobile-dating apps have become popular among students for the convenience and options not always found in a bar or club.
Her boyfriend lives outside of Gainesville, and she said they wouldn’t have met without online dating.
“Not to mention, it’s nice to refine your search to what preferences you want in a person,” she said.
