Serendipity has no algorithm on College dating site

Standing at the bottom of the steps at low library at Columbia recently, Mr. Meyer, 28, claimed that his generation bred to attend the best schools, maximise revenues and grab more golden opportunities, even in matters of the heart. He blames a suspicion — technology — saying that most wired people in history seem to have no emotional connection.

"People in the 21st century are alone," said Mr. Meyer, who is French. "We have so many new ways of communicating, but we're so lonely."

But Mr. Meyer solution to this problem is more pragmatic, more romantic. Created by Balazs Alexa, 28-year-old m.b.a. candidate at Columbia University, school of My Data also provides a shortcut for the highly selective love for students who are fluent in social media but too entrenched in their studies for much of the actual social life.

The site, which just got $ 500,000 from private investors, went live last November to Columbia and the University of New York in December, limiting membership to those with email addresses. edu to these two institutions. Within a week, My School had attracted nearly 1,300 users, about 5 percent of the student population of Columbia. Now has more than 7,000 users, including some from the Fashion Institute of Technology, because, said Mr. Meyer, a friend convinced him that there were a lot of women attractive vi — women who specifically "wanted to date boys at Columbia University".

Mr. Alexa, which has just finished a semester of exchanges, University of California, Berkeley, has expanded the site that campus, and at Stanford. In April, the two men will aim at Boston University, Harvard and m.i.t. Teresa Finney, 26, which begins on the first half at N.Y.U. School of continuing and Professional Studies this spring, is a satisfied user. "I'm interested in dating someone who do not feel threatened by my planning," he said of his failed attempts with traditional dating sites. "I rarely any free time."

"The site is elitist and all the better for it," added Ms. Finney "School My Date is doing exactly what Facebook has done in its early years."

The site was unique e-mail addresses. edu elite institutions in its phase of incubator at Harvard and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who were students at Harvard with Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook claimed that Mr. Zuckerberg had the idea after who shared their plans for the connection of Harvard, a Harvard-only dating site. Mr. Meyer is troubled by any comparison. "I don't care when people call me ' The French Zuckerberg's corridors," he said. "Mark Zuckerberg is success."

He believes that school My Data exceeds blueprint of the Winklevosses because of its many options for privacy and selectivity. Users choose which schools and programs can view their profiles online, which remain invisible to everyone else. (Mr. Meyer and Mr. Alexa believe that this is less of an embarrassment associated with online dating).

Through the search function you can specify a religion and size. Advanced privacy is part of what persuaded Dominique Lefebvre, 24, a student of film at Columbia University, to sign up in November; his profile is visible to all graduate programs except their own.

Still, he said: "the selectivity can seem a bit superficial. I have a friend that is visible only for law, business, engineering and med students at Columbia University. You could say that wants to meet men who have a solid, profitable future ahead of them, but I think she wants to meet people in charge, who have a plan, to know themselves and who know what they want from life. "

MS. Lefebvre, who arrived in New York to Montreal two and a half years ago, is happy that his profile is invisible to those who know better at school. "Most of the guys that I've connected with since I was here was in my program, which are not to be a great idea," he said.

He had even less luck dating men who met at the bar and on OK Cupid, a site that makes matches based on an algorithm that calculates the compatibility on the basis of the replies to a questionnaire. "Grad students understand each other and unusual lifestyles that we conduct," said ms. Lefebvre. "To be able to meet someone who is going through a rigorous programme but, outside my field it would be wonderful."

Jonathan Fainberg, post baccalaureate student at Columbia, which is applying to medical school next fall for input, a user is given My School that likes the site's advanced filtering. "If you're in grad school at N.Y.U. or Columbia, should I hire you're smart, ambitious and motivated — at least one of the three," said Mr. Fainberg, 24. "So far, all that I met through the school My date was an impressive individual, even if there were dates for me."

Dateability, in any case, it may be a lower priority for users of the professional networking site. According to Mr. Meyer, 63% of users respond to an application form on the website say who would prefer "having the most incredible career" to "encounter with the love of your life." If this is even possible these days.

"Young people today have the impression that the dating is like buying consumer goods," said Mr. Meyer, his Brown eyes reflecting some sadness about this.