Again, two questions – you guys keep sending in the tough ones and make me type until my fingers turn blue. At least my insurance covers it.


Why do upperclassmen guys go for freshmen girls? It seems like it’s a phenomenon that occurs each and every year. Do freshmen girls have something that upperclassmen don’t? Do they lack something that taint upperclassmen girls?

-Questioning the backwards grade inflation

Freshmen girls get all the attention because guys like to tick off the upperclassmen girls.

Well, not quite. You’re not the first to be intrigued by this phenomenon – I’ve taken the two years I’ve spent in college developing a highly sophisticated matrix with the information I’ve accumulated to try to answer this question. Other than being able to use a lot of big words, I don’t have a complete answer to this, but here are some observations:

  • The glamour of dating a college guy for a girl seems to be a big thing in high school. TV and movies seem to proliferate this idea, but in high school it seemed to be a big deal. For freshmen, that seems to remain true, especially the older college guy. So, it stands to reason that they like that. It doesn’t hurt that since the older guy’s now got friends all over the place, they know where the party is, and the sad thing is some junior/senior guys will accept that as their main purpose to be with a younger college girl.
  • Another enigma is the abuse of the freshmen guys. It seems like if the woman is older, the odds are against even the guy being considered in the running for relationship status. As they get older, the range opens up some. But then consider that the juniors and seniors have already been around the older girls for two years or more, so they have already fallen into a category: datable, dated, friendship, wouldn’t-touch-her-with-a-ten-foot-pole, etc. So when a new round comes in, they’re a new group to get to know in just about every way. So it stands to reason that, especially at the beginning of the year, they seem quite attractive.
  • Finally, there’s the assimilation aspect. To dive into my geeky side, think of college as the Borg from Star Trek, assimilating everyone and making them like them. Freshmen are in that small group who haven’t hit that point yet. They haven’t built up that collection of 15 (insert name here) college sweatshirts. So it’s always a plus when you haven’t found a clone of someone you know as a friend, or worse, someone who reminds you of your ex.

Again, this is about as scientific as throwing darts at a board. People have different reasons for doing what they do. But these seem to be the most common threads of the rope that is the “No date for you!” senior girl syndrome.


I like to go out with my friends, and they’ve encouraged me to have fun and do body shots. However, usually it’s girls night out, so we’re just out having fun with the girls. Should I get involved, or is this something I might regret later?

-Having body issues

I’ll take a shot in the dark on this question.

Body shots rank up there in terms of trust. You’re letting someone get close to your body (or you’re getting close to someone’s body), and mouth-to-skin contact is being made. Bear with me – I have to keep this as sterile as possible for our paper’s censors.

A boyfriend could take offense to you taking body shots off a guy, or a guy taking body shots off from you, especially if he’s not there at the time and could find out later. It’s one of those things you have to talk with him about before going ahead and make sure he’s comfortable with the idea. Otherwise, this could be considered a form of cheating and the only shot you’ll get is with another guy.


Have a question you want answered? E-mail joconnell@fairfieldmirror.com and he may answer your question in a future A Word of Advice. Questions are answered every Monday and Thursday. All questions answered in the column were submitted by college-age students and may have been edited for length and/or content.

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