Swipe right or swipe left? A question many have pondered while examining a profile of a potential love interest on the popular dating app Tinder. As it turns out, Miami students love to swipe right.
According to a newly published data set from Tinder, Miami ranks high among the top universities where people "swipe right," or indicate positive interest on a match.
For campuses with the most right-swiped females, Miami is ranked 16th in the nation, beating out universities with student bodies nearly double in size.
As for the male population, they're highly right-swiped, as well. Miami made the list at 21st for men. Data for the study was collected during the spring 2015 semester by Tinder and released this week.
Sophomore Morgan Mittler was unsurprised by the polling results, although she doesn't like the app herself.
"I think it's gross because people just use it to hook up," Mittler said. "I think [Tinder] is basically a breeding ground for the hook-up culture."
Unlike most lists revolving around appearances, Tinder's data found few similarities between right-swiped males and females. The two lists feature no commonalities in the top 10 except for the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss).
The top female schools tended to be large, public universities while the top male schools tended to be private or Christian affiliated. Miami was one of few schools where males and females had similar rankings, echoing other lists featuring the university.
A list published by college review website, "Niche," named Miami University women the most attractive in the country in a poll of 739 colleges. "Niche" also named Miami men the most attractive out of 588 colleges. Additionally, Business Insider named Miami 14th on a list of schools where students are both "hot and smart."
Senior Nichole Blachowicz noted she has a love-hate relationship with the appearance-based app, but explained that she had better experiences with it outside the college environment.
"I think on a lot of college campuses, it's much more of a hook-up app than a dating one," Blachowicz said. "But when I lived in a city, it was good for dating and meeting people."
Dating apps and online dating continue to grow in popularity among millennial daters. Some, like Blachowicz, are more supportive of the movement than others.
Tinder specifically made headlines earlier this month for engaging in an angry Twitter exchange with writer Nancy Jo Sales, who has negative feelings about the app, like Mittler. Sales wrote a scathing article for Vanity Fair entitled "Tinder and the Dawn of the 'Dating Apocalypse,'" which condemned the app that allows you to judge others almost entirely on appearance.
Although it has its critics, the app boasts more than 50 million active users and over 8 billion matches since its founding in 2012.
Blachowicz argued the dating social network is better than its poor reputation.
"I know plenty of people who have met their boyfriend or girlfriend on Tinder," Blachowicz said. "Tinder has this taboo about it but I think a lot of people have a good experience on it."