College is the place where young minds go to receive higher education in preparation for landing their dream jobs. However, multiple studies have been done which reveal that many people have an alternative motivation for going to college. As it turns out, 63 percent of female college students have stated they want to meet their future spouse while attending college.

Unfortunately, with the popularity of things like hookup culture, it is becoming increasingly harder to maintain a healthy long-term romantic relationship. That does not mean all hope is lost though. By following these helpful tips, students can improve the odds of maintaining a long-term relationship and finding true love while attending college.

Choose the Proper Setting

If someone is hoping to get a romantic partner worth keeping, then they have to make it clear they are after something more than a casual fling right from the start. A great way to help get this across is by picking the proper setting for the first encounter.

By arranging to meet for late-night drinks at a bar, it automatically sets a much more casual tone that is geared more towards having a one night stand rather than a serious relationship. Instead, a much better option is to suggest going out for dinner or even making it an earlier date such as getting brunch together or attending a very public event during the day. Any of these scenarios make it clear that the purpose of the date is to lay the groundwork for something more long-term, instead of just trying to establish a causal relationship.

Look in the Right Places

The saying “There’s plenty of fish in the sea” is thrown around a lot. While this is meant to be an encouraging statement, it can actually be quite discouraging if thought about in context. While there might be plenty of fish in the sea, that doesn’t mean that compatible matches are easy to find, so blindly picking a fishing hole is not going to provide a very good chance of finding true love.

In order to make this process as easy as possible, students need to know where to be looking for a romantic relationship. Unfortunately, many of them seem to want to turn to quick and easy dating apps on their phones. An astonishing 84 percent of college students reported being on Tinder, which is a very popular app that is widely known as being a facilitator for hookup culture. So although this is where a lot of college students tend to be, this is not the ideal place to be looking for a romantic partner.

The saying “There’s plenty of fish in the sea” is thrown around a lot. While this is meant to be an encouraging statement, it can actually be quite discouraging if thought about in context. While there might be plenty of fish in the sea, that doesn’t mean that compatible matches are easy to find, so blindly picking a fishing hole is not going to provide a very good chance of finding true love.

In order to make this process as easy as possible, students need to know where to be looking for a romantic relationship. Unfortunately, many of them seem to want to turn to quick and easy dating apps on their phones. An astonishing 84 percent of college students reported being on Tinder, which is a very popular app that is widely known as being a facilitator for hookup culture. So although this is where a lot of college students tend to be, this is not the ideal place to be looking for a romantic partner.

Instead, they should be using sites and apps that are geared more towards developing serious partnerships such as eHarmony and Match. Over 30 percent of Match users reported that finding love was their main goal for using the site. Compared to apps like Tinder, this is significantly more.

In fact, finding love is the last thing on the mind of most Tinder users. Less than 10 percent of Tinder users are actually on the site with the intent to find love and develop a romantic relationship. By choosing a platform that is populated with individuals who are looking to be involved in a long-term relationship, students give themselves the best chance of finding a loving partner to be with.

Talk About Goals Early on

It’s hard to know what someone wants if they are never asked. That is why it is incredibly important that students take the opportunity to discuss what they are looking for from the other person as soon as possible when seeing someone.

If someone is not interested in developing a relationship and is just looking for a night or two of fun, then this is worth finding out right away. The best way to make this clear to both parties is to simply have a discussion about it.