I’m not going to college to find a husband

Im+not+going+to+college+to+find+a+husband

All-women’s colleges produce 20 percent of the women in Congress, yet graduates of these colleges only make up roughly 2 percent of female college graduates, according to Forbes.

I know I sound like a college brochure, or the tour guide on a campus tour, but it’s true, and it’s an important statistic.

Women’s colleges aren’t the environment for everyone, but I’ve known since sophomore year that it was the one for me.

So when I got into Wellesley College last December, the last thing I expected were people to react with questions about my dating life.

But here I am, three months later, and the most common response I get from a well-meaning bystander about my college plans is a slightly confused look, and then a “What will you do about boys?”

For these few months, it’s like I’ve been transported sixty years back in time, where society expected a women to go to college to only get married before graduation. Everyone seems so genuinely worried about what I’ll do about boys, about dating, that they forget I’m going to college to get a degree.

When I tell people where I’m going, I inevitably have to explain that yes, I’m going to be close to Boston, and yes, men live in Boston and no, I won’t be cloistered away for four years.

I long for the conversations my twin brother has about his colleges, where people congratulate him with a “Wow, that’s a great school!” and then ask him what he wants to study, or compare a couple football statistics.

No one asks him how he thinks his dating life will go; no one asks him how he’s going to handle a girlfriend on top of his course load. It is, of course, partially because he’s going to a co-ed school, but partially because no one would ask a boy this.

People seem to forget that I’m going to college for a diploma, not a ring, and one of the reasons I chose a women’s college was that the academics were so important to meto put it kindly, Wellesley doesn’t have the biggest party scene.

So if your friend, or neighbor, or that senior girl you don’t talk to in physics, but you know she has to be going to college somewhere, tells you she’s going to Wellesley, or Smith, Scripps or Barnard, or any other women’s college, don’t ask her about her future romantic life.

Believe me: we’re smart girls—if we want to find a date, we will.

You don’t need to worry about it.