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From Feb. 12 to Feb. 14 (Valentine’s Day), The Tartan collected data on the dating habits of Carnegie Mellon students. The Tartan gathered 136 responses.
Of the respondents, 55 (about 40 percent) were 18 to 20, 67 (about 49 percent) were 21 to 23, and 14 (about 10 percent) were 24 or older.
101 (about 74 percent) were undergraduates, 33 (about 24 percent) were pursuing a master’s degree, and 2 were pursuing a Ph.D. 32 (about 24 percent) were in CIT, 26 (about 19 percent) were in Dietrich, 25 (about 18 percent) were in SCS, 21 (about 15 percent) were in MCS, seven (about five percent) were in Heinz, and six were in Tepper.
The respondents were 59 men (about 43 percent), 65 women (about 48 percent), and the rest identified as another gender.
Of the men, 50 were dating or hoping to date exclusively women, five were dating or hoping to date exclusively other men, and four were dating or hoping to date multiple genders.
Of the women, 44 were dating or hoping to date exclusively men, four were dating or hoping to date exclusively other women, 16 were dating or hoping to date multiple genders, and one didn’t specify.
Carnegie Mellon students had been asked out by an average of 2.5 people, with a median of 1 person. The average woman had been asked out by about 3.3 people with a median of 2 people. The average man had been asked out by about 1.8 with a median of 1 person.
The average person accepted about 38 percent of offers. A man and two women had been asked out by the maximum number of people, which was 15. One woman had said “yes” to 10 of them and the other had said “yes” to five. The man had said “yes” to six.
Students had, in turn, asked out an average of 2.9 people, with a median of 1. The average woman had asked out 1.3 people, with a median of 0.5. The average man had asked out 4.7 people, with a median of 2. The average person had a success rate of about 64 percent.
Two straight men were tied for the title of “most people asked out,” having asked 50 people out. The two men’s reported success rates were 80 percent and 26 percent, respectively.
Most people asked out and were asked out by people they had known previously. The most common way to ask people out was in person, followed by text or messaging apps.
Of 129 students who answered the question, 114 (about 88 percent) said that they did not use dating apps, one person specified that they had used dating apps recently, and the remaining 14 (about 11 percent) said that they used dating apps. The most popular app among users was Hinge. Other dating apps students reported using are Tinder and Bumble.
107 students out of 129 (82 percent) said that they required partners to be loyal, and 107 said that they required kindness and patience. (These were tied for most important traits.)
104 people said they required intelligence in a partner, the second most valued trait.
The most common problem students had with dating was a lack of time due to academics. Many students also voiced complaints about widespread isolation or social awkwardness.
As one student summarized it, “Tech school = no rizz.”
However, a minority of students didn’t think that dating here was different from dating in other communities.
One student remarked, “I think it’s the same, people just tend to overexaggerate some aspects more than they do in other places. It feels like a self fulfilling prophecy that isn’t actually being fulfilled, but everyone thinks it is.”
61 out of 126 people (about 48 percent) were in a relationship. 116 out of 129 (about 90 percent) of students were only open to monogamous relationships.
The average and median person had been in about 2 relationships, and a third of students had been in a relationship of at least two years. 22 out of 126 people (about 17 percent) had never been in a relationship.
The majority of students were hoping to marry eventually. 18 out of 123 were planning to marry their current partner, 77 were hoping to marry eventually, 18 were not sure, and 7 were not planning on getting married.
The majority of students were planning on having children, with the plurality hoping to have 1 or 2 children. 14 out of 106 people (about 13 percent) were waiting until marriage to have sex.
18 out of 108 people (about 17 percent) had never had their first kiss. 47 out of 113 (about 42 percent) of students had never had sex. 37 (about 33 percent) had had sex with one or two people, 15 (about 13 percent) had had sex with three to five people, 8 had had sex with six to 10, and the remaining 6 had had sex with more than 10 people.
Men were more likely to have had sex (30 out of 52) than women (25 out of 51). Of people who have had sex, the average and median age at which people lost their virginity was 18 (averages of 18 for women and 19 for men).
The survey was likely biased towards those in relationships, possibly with other biases, because it was offered voluntarily, with information about the content of the questions.