It's Friday night. You can grab some food at the Spa, hit up the pub or go to a party--but don't expect to have a date.

According to the American Council of Education, women make up 61 percent of students at liberal arts colleges. At Colby, 56 percent of students are female. This number is slightly lower than the national average, but the fact still remains that there are more women than men at the College. "I don't think [the gender gap] is that much of a problem," Rebecca Gonzalez-Kreisberg '12 says. "The only moments I notice the difference in boys and girls on campus is in certain classes, which definitely have mostly girls with a few boys."

This idea is echoed by many other students who have noticed an imbalanced ratio of males to females in classes of certain academic departments. Language and literature classes, for example, tend to have more females, versus economics and physics classes, in which the majority of students are male.

Some students at the College have admitted that their friend groups are strikingly disproportionate. While many mention that they have friends of both genders, they are also quick to point out that their different groups of friends are mainly segregated by gender.

The gender gap may be most evident in the dating culture at the College, and many girls lament the lack of available men on the Hill. "Most guys are either already in a relationship or not looking for one," a female who wishes to remain anonymous observes.

On the Hill, male-female interactions seem to consist of more random hook-ups than serious relationships. "Drunk hook-ups are a part of the culture here at Colby," Daria Jones '13 says. "I feel like it is just attached to the nightlife. If you went out last night the immediate question one asks is if you hooked up with anyone."

Students claim that the on-campus social scene and lack of access to downtown Waterville is what discourages them from dating. "Since most dates take place in dining halls, they don't really feel like dates. Also, people very often ask others out to lunch with no intention of it being a date," another anonymous student says.

Romantic relationships may need a new definition, according to Nicole Raheja '10, who thinks "the idea of dating has changed a lot because dating just means that you are in an official relationship, but you don't actually have to go on dates." For college students who are in relationships, "dating" is usually limited to hanging out together, mostly in dorm rooms. Fran Still '10 believes that "today's culture is not as pro-marriage as it was sixty years ago when our grandparents were in college. We value independence yet crave security, and sometimes those two ideals can clash, especially when deciding where to take an existing relationship." "I know a lot of people my parents' age who met their spouses in college," says Raheja, "but I am a senior and I have not seen many college students in the kind of serious relationship that might lead to marriage."

In general, people today are getting married at an older age than they have been in years past. This could partly be explained by the increasingly competitive job market, in which more and more positions are requiring Bachelor's degrees and even Master's degrees. Many students continue their educations well into their mid-twenties, and they may not consider marriage until after they graduate.

All in all, the relationship between men and women at the College is affecting our generation's changing values and behavior. If drunken hook-ups are the norm, then students are less likely to develop serious long-term relationships regardless of the growing gender gap. "Boys will be boys and girls will be girls, no matter the ratio," Jones says.