Between work and classes, students don’t always have time to sort out the sincere sweethearts from pretentious players in their departments, let alone their campuses.
But Datemyschool.com, which has been advertised around UF, is hoping to resolve this problem.
UF has about 500 students on the network, said a company spokesperson.
The site, founded in 2010 at Columbia University, has about 209,000 users and seeks to connect students to potential boyfriends, girlfriends or just friends around their universities who they wouldn’t otherwise meet.
Adriana Di Graziano, a 20-year-old UF public relations freshman and a campus ambassador for the company, said a week after the site launched, about 5 percent of Columbia’s Student Body registered for the site, which prompted founders to expand to other universities.
The site’s co-founder, Balazs Alexa, wrote in an email that he is excited to have UF involved in the site.
“UF is an incredibly important ‘anchor’ school for us in Florida, given its positive reputation and sheer size of 50,000+ students,” he said.
Although other campuses regularly have 200 students sign up a week, Di Graziano said she has seen recent increases in UF numbers.
Only individuals with .edu email addresses can join the site, which includes current undergraduates, graduates and alumni.
Although users cannot search by name for privacy purposes, they can exclude individuals from viewing their information.
“No one will know that you are there unless you want them to,” Di Graziano said.
Although UF’s activity is still growing, schools like Columbia and New York University have a combined 17,000 user base.
“My dream is to have a similar user base at UF as what we have in New York schools,” Alexa said. “So if … we would become responsible for 50+ percent of dates happening on campus — I would be happy.”
UF public relations senior Saphira Lazarre said she considers this new site to be another categorical dating website.
“I am definitely a big skeptic when it comes to online dating,” the 21-year-old said. “I’m an old-fashioned girl. I’d rather meet someone personally and use it in terms of networking.”
