College Romance' for Students

Have $16.50? Time to describe yourself to strangers? Well, a Boston real estate manager promises you a great investment. And it's not land.

John M. Schramm, a 22-year-old Boston University graduate, has organized "College Romance," a dating service promising to unite "thousands of students from the Boston area."

In exchange for the few minutes it takes to write a brief self-description, what qualities you desire in a partner, and $16.50--"a small risk for a great gain," according to the ad--Schramm will try to "unite you with your dream mate."

But despite tantalizing promises in his advertisements in local college newspapers, Schramm said he has had "a mild response," declining to cite figures. And as of Saturday, two days after his ad appeared in The Crimson, not one of his respondents had been from Harvard, he said.

"It's a new idea, and I kind of started it late," said the Kansas City, Mo. native, explaining his project's low popularity. He said, though, that in attempting to unite "dream mates" he would pass out 30,000 flyers at Boston-area schools, such as Fisher Junior College and the Berklee School of Music, which do not have newspapers in which to advertise.

Schramm said he does not know how many people will take part in the partner-matching scheme. The dating service's unusual fee is a result of Schramm's effort to "pick the price to get it as high as it can, and still have it not sound like much," he said.

Schramm, who took his BU degree in finance, said the idea for a dating service for college students "just popped into my head. I was just thinking of things to do."

All respondents will be matched by hand, Schramm said. He said that he and his girlfriend will "get them all together and start reading them, and match them up from there."

Harvard students appear to regard the dating service dubiously.

"No one's going to pay that much money unless they're really hard up," said Debra A. Brown '88.

"It just must be a joke," said Nicholas P. Hotchking '88. "I can't imagine anybody going into this seriously."

"The first thing I did was I laughed. I almost did it out of curiosity. But it's hard--what if you get a real loser?" said Beth L. Shair '89.

"In my day, blind dates were free, but they were more often than not a disappointment," said Professor of Anthropology Irven DeVore, who teaches Science B-29, "Human Behavioral Biology," which boasts the popular nickname, "sex."

"But if they really can bring people together with similar interests, then it's a tremendous bargain," DeVore said.

"The campus is a very isolated environment. The advertisement is geared toward those who have difficulty meeting people, and I suspect gearing it toward students is not a bad idea," said Assistant Professor of Anthropology Charles T. Lindholm, who teaches Anthropology 156, "Psychological Anthropology,' which deals with such issues a romantic love and sexual identity.