Tinder kicked off the fall semester by introducing Tinder University, or Tinder U. This new in-app extension was launched on Aug. 21. Now, Greek life members’ infamous “who do you know here?” mantra haunts even your dating life.
The purpose of this app add-on is to make college students more available to their fellow classmates amongst Tinder’s sea of singles. Just as one applies to college, one must apply to Tinder U to gain access to the in-app extension. The user will get “accepted” into this Ivy League of dating apps after verifying their location and student email.
Eligible users are marked with their school initials at the bottom of their profile picture to help represent school pride. While users can find fellow Knights, students can change the settings to also swipe right on students from nearby universities.
When downloading and exploring this new app, however, users should read the fine print:“This feature is for students at 4-year, degree-granting colleges and universities in the [United States] only.”
This fine print excludes many people attending trade school and community colleges or taking online classes. The extension, however, is mainly meant to help connect people on the same campus. This could then allow students to find a study buddy for midterms or new people to sit with on the College Green.
This extension might also be helpful if locals aren’t your thing. Let’s be honest, after seeing so many profiles of farmers with a dead deer or a fish, swiping right becomes disenchanting.
Yet, this also means that professors, some alumni and really anyone else near the school with an active four-year institution email address can apply. But not to worry, you probably won’t see your psychology professor on Tinder U because Tinder’s largest audience is college students between the ages of 18 and 24, according to Chief Product Officer Brian Norgard.
“[College students] are more focused on having a smaller, more intimate group they interact with. Offering the ability to narrow your audience to a college market is one way of doing that,” Principal Analyst at eMarketer Debra Aho said to CNN.
It seems, however, that this extension to the well-known and well-loved Tinder app has yet to be widely accepted at Geneseo or any neighboring schools. Some students are concerned over privacy since their college email is connected to the account.
But thus far, the biggest question seems to be whether this is just a marketing gimmick that will soon fade away or if it will truly help college kids expedite their search for a soulmate.