Securing the Double Legacy
Insight into Harvard Freshman Dating Culture
By JAYCEE YEGHER and GRAHAM WALTER
It’s a pretty safe assumption that most of us are really here to find a match and create a double legacy. I mean all of you have at least said it jokingly and know that there is definitely a little bit of sincere intent behind the words.
Coming to Harvard, we all had some expectations. Our prefrosh minds may not have even known about the value of double legacy, but the prospect of being constantly surrounded by thousands of peers is enough to make us wonder: what’s in store for the next four years?
For upperclassmen, these expectations have been addressed and possibly forgotten, so, while it is fresh on their mind, we surveyed some freshmen about their own expectations of the Harvard dating scene now that they have had a full year to participate. They told us what their expectations before coming to Harvard were and how they felt after a year here.
After a survey of some freshman, we found that about half of those surveyed responded that they expected to find a romantic partner. The average age for women to get married right now is 27, and for men it’s 26; in 1990 it was 22 and 23, and in 1960, it was 20 and 22. On average, as the age of marriage grows older, especially among academics, getting involved in serious relationships become less of priority. It seems more likely that you’ll meet your life partner long after you graduate. So why waste the time actually getting to know someone, when you can focus on your career instead?
The pressures of finding the love of your life around this time are very real, especially when talk of “cuffing season” seems to roll around…every season. Some students have expressed that they feel potential dating prospects are too career minded, stating that Harvard students tend to forgo spending time experiencing relationships in favor of resume building activities. One student in particular left us with a few words of wisdom: “growth as a person is just as important as resume growth.”
Other students found the challenging dichotomy in the Harvard dating scene between the mature expectations and still developing nature of students; one students stated, “I expected both the people and the environment to be more adult-like but I feel like we’re still kids.”
And finally one freshmen left us with a parting wish: we need more hot people.
Jaycee Yegher ‘21 (jayceeyegher@college.harvard.edu) and Graham Walter ‘21 (grahamwalter@college.harvard.edu) have already found a double legacy in each other.