These are the top six places in Exeter to meet your future partner as a student

If you’re single right now, go to these six places before or on Valentine’s Day and your chance of meeting your soulmate will skyrocket (almost) according to science. Of course, you’ll never see me there: although I moan a lot about being single, I will never leave my house. How can I? I have the new season of You to binge.

1. Salsa

This is totally not biased because I’m on the Salsa Soc committee but I really don’t know what they’re putting in the water at the Exeter Uni Salsa Soc. When you’re in a big circle and swapping partners with everyone, there is such a high chance of meeting not only great friends but more than friends. Trust me, MULTIPLE people have told me their stories of a hot guy, amazing at salsa, who have become their next situationship. They almost always become situationships because they are almost always exchange students leaving at the end of term…

You’ll have a great few months together and hopefully will get over the separation and become really good buddies instead. So hot guys/girls at salsa, keep doing what you’re doing, but please never ever leave us. If you’re feeling less sensual and more romantic, there is always the Ballroom and Latin Soc where you can pick up a crush to elegantly waltz or cha-cha-cha with for an hour and a half every other week.

2. Forum Library

I don’t care what anyone says but meeting my future husband at the library would be the coolest. The problem is, I actually have to go to the library for that to happen, and it’s happened maybe four times in the three years I’ve been a student here. All you’ve got to do is grab a coffee from Pret and a book, lounge on a chair near your subject area and wait for a guy/girl to be checking it out. Go and do a classic British “can I slip past you?” and steal a glance at the book he’s reading. Draw on your lecture notes and start talking all about how you much you love/hate that book for x reason. 

To deepen the conversation one step further, you could even ask him your essay question and mentally write down some ideas, though I’m not sure how many people would respond to being sensually asked “Can you discuss for me to what extent the 1890-1 Tobacco protests led to the 1906 Constitutional Revolution in Persia?”. Worth a shot though. 

3. Dating Apps

An obvious one but they’re classics. Maybe this is saved for a last option (well, second to last option now that I’ve included the Forum steps). Exeter’s Tinder landscape is interesting to say the least. But overall, it’s not that exciting except for a few gems that come up every 10 swipes or so. If that fails, you could genuinely try Overheard to set up a date “for your friend”. It wouldn’t be the first or the last time I would have seen this. There is always some stuff about blind dates being set up on Overheard so give that one a whirl. And if anonymity is more your thing, you can always try The Tab Exeter’s Library Crushes on Instagram…

4. Intramural Netball

Oh God, why did I have this idea? I got really competitive during my short stint playing for a society’s netball team, but it was really fun. Not only will your crushes be decked out in sports gear that compliments them to the max, but you’ll have a great time falling over and rolling on the ground because you’re getting distracted by their glorious thighs. Bonus points if you crash into them and end up like a human pretzel on the ground before the ref cockblocks you with the whistle. After the match, you’ll now have something to jokingly apologise and laugh with them about. Play your cards right and you might score a date – providing they’re single. 

5. TP Tuesday 

TP Tuesday is salsa night. Which is great for me to get there at 9:30 pm and have the floor just for me and my friends to salsa before the crowds come in. Maybe once people start coming in, you’ll have more of a chance. I’m thinking Grace Phipps from Teen Beach Movie falling off the stage into the arms of her crush in the movie. Except in your case, it wouldn’t be to some cute, clean love song. It would probably be to Gasolina by Daddy Yankee or Hotel Room Service by Pitbull – but we work with what we’ve got.

6. Forum steps

If you wait here long enough, someone is bound to write into The Tab Exeter’s Library Crushes about the hottie lounging around outside the Forum. 

Advantages: You’ll get noticed and people will think you’re hot.

Disadvantages: The person crushing on you will almost never approach you. And you’ll get stuck waiting outside in the cold waiting for people to approach you. 

So this is maybe the very final, last resort. 

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