As her roommates fluff their hair and brush their cheeks, Linda J. Moon '99 looks on from her bedroom door.

"We're all doing the black dress thing. Maybe I should wear my vinyl pants after all," Moon says.

The roommates, Quincy seniors, prep for a night at the Lansdowne Playhouse, a Boston club.

The absence of men from the dancing venture does not discourage them from the usual primping ritual shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday night.

"If it's just with women you go out to meet guys," Moon says. "You know, you go out with your girlfriends."

The seniors say they used to go to Harvard parties, but are in need refreshment after three years in the Square.

The crowds and heat of Harvard parties are not their only drawbacks: sometimes Harvard men drive older women to the city.

And many college men are only eyeing underclass women.

"Now that we're seniors a lot of guys throw their own parties to meet younger women," Jaime K. Chambron '99 says.

"For senior girls you want to date older men," she says, adding that women tend to mature faster than men.

After three years their class has sorted itself into couples and those who will probably remain single through graduation. Classmate dating prospects just do not excite them as much as they used to, Chambron says.

"I think that people at Harvard are really goal-oriented and don't have time for relationships," says Moon.

"You know the old saying, 'At Harvard it's either marriage or hook-ups,'" she adds.

Men may have a wider array of choices when they set out for a night on the town. Women's choices are restricted to room parties, braving the city's bar or club scene, or being invited to someone else's club.

"Guys have another place to go than just their dorm rooms. A lot of them have their own clubs to go to," Chambron says.