Virginia Dates

Single students, staff, alumni and friends of the University of Virginia can use Virginia Dates as a great way to meet other single people with similar interests. While you don't have to be directly involved with the school to use this site almost all of the members on the site live in or around the general area of the school. This means that if you don't live in that area there is a very good chance there will be no other members near you and you will have little use for this site.

That said, there are still some nice features on this site that are worth mentioning. The site has a good, simple design that makes navigating and using it a breeze. They also have a quick and easy sign up process to get your free membership. The profiles in this site can be pretty detailed, but they allow you to skip filling in much of that detail when you sign up for the site and let you do it later if you want. I appreciate being given that choice. It allows you to check out the site first and decide if you want to give it a try before spending the time filling in your profile.

Searching for people on this is easily done using two different search options. The basic search function allows you to select a distance from you and an age range and filters your results with those criteria. The advanced search function is called Smart Match. It takes all the information from your profile and uses it to match you with other people. If you are like me and skipped filling in the details of your profile when you signed up you will need to back and fill them in before the Smart Match option will work for you. You can create a profile, search and look at member profiles with your free membership. You only need to get a paid membership if you want to contact someone directly.

While the site has some good stuff to offer I did still score it on the lower end. I did this because most people will simply not live close enough to the university for there to be any members near them. In those cases the site is basically worthless. The site also lacks any interactive features like chat rooms or users forums. Those things aside, if you do live near the school or you are involved with this university then you should ignore my score and give this site a try because almost all of the members are located in your area so you will have a better than normal chance of finding someone you have something in common with it.