Morrell agrees: although she did not consciously avoid the on-campus dating scene, the pool of students at Harvard "is just really homogeneous. By going off campus you get a better variety."

Not only are Harvard students similar to one another, one senior who lives off-campus says, but the traits they share make dating difficult.

"Of course people are anal, antisocial, busy," he wrote in an e-mail message. "Harvard is a community essentially based on the individual and his or her attempt to move forward and succeed in getting what is desired.... It doesn't lend itself to generous human interaction."

Chvatik says he doubts he would have found a relationship at Harvard like his current one.

"It really again depends on the kind of relationship you want," he wrote. "If it's a short-term, fun-and-forget kind of relationship, it might be fine. But finding something longer term here seems to be hard."

So if the Harvard dating pool is so lacking, why don't more students date off-campus? Chvatik cites the inconvenience of meeting someone elsewhere, let alone getting to know them.

"It's hard to find the right