“An average-looking guy, looking for someone interested in the arts,” “I am 25 years old and I love watching movies. Need someone to have good conversations with.”

Blind dating (so-gae-ting in Korean) is not an uncommon way of meeting someone in Korea at all. Usually, mutual friends or parents set up a date for two individuals. In some cases, a professional matchmaker gets involved as well. These days, this type of meeting has become so popular that it has created an industry. There are companies that specialize in match-making, and they are prospering. However, some people started wondering, “Can we do this on-line with fewer acquaintances and less money involved?”

So now there is a dating site which guarantees it can find “the one” for you. How does it work? When joining the website, you provide basic information about yourself, such as your gender, age, height, hobbies, occupation, and so on. Then you describe what type of person you want to date in the same way you described yourself. There are many websites that are like this. However, not everyone is allowed in. In most cases, you are required to pay for membership, but in the case of this special website, money is not the main requirement. There is only one condition; you must be either an SNU student or an SNU graduate.

This website, which currently has 1469 male and 741 female members, is called “SNULOVE” (www.snulove.net). In order to become a member of SNULOVE, you have to prove that you are actually enrolled in or have graduated from SNU by responding to an authentication email from the SNULOVE server sent to your SNU email account. As soon as you finish entering all the required data, the website matches you with someone from the opposite sex based on the provided information.

There are several more steps to take though. Once two members are “matched” by the SNULOVE server, each person can first have a look at basic information about the other, and then decide whether to “accept” or “deny” the match. If both parties answer in the affirmative, more personal details including phone numbers are sent to their SNU e-mail accounts which enables the two people to meet up in person. If that happens, the website will mark both profiles “on a date.” What if you don’t like your online match, or did not like your date? The website will come up with a new match for you, although at max one match per day.

According to the website, there are 15 couples who are officially in a relationship thanks to SNULOVE, while 176 others have started dating and getting to know each other. One student stresses that the most important part is self-introduction, saying, “the basic information part is more or less the same in most cases. What I do care about is how this guy is describing himself.” In fact, one of the announcements on the website states that any member whose self-introduction is not good enough can be excluded.

After all, what makes SNULOVE unique is that it is only open to SNU students and alumni. KIM (28), a female who graduated from SNU in 2011, says, “SNULOVE is a really casual, laid-back place where you can set yourself up for a blind date. And since everyone is from SNU, I can focus on the person’s personality, not having to worry about educational background.” Another SNULOVE member, YOON (26, graduated in 2012) notes “It is not like I only want to meet a girl from SNU. But isn’t it natural to expect that with someone from a similar background I will have a lot in common? Since it is already “filtered,” so to speak, I feel like I can jump right into a relationship when the person’s character seems nice.”

The founder of SNULOVE, an SNU graduate who is a 30-year-old computer programmer, explained that he noticed the demand for an on-line dating site for SNU members when he was an undergraduate student. “Many students were already posting self-descriptions on the bulletin boards of SNULIFE, the established SNU online community, to meet someone from within the the SNU community. And that made me think, ‘Why not have a separate, specialized online dating website for SNU members?’” he explained. After graduation, in 2011, he finally created SNULOVE, which has become more and more popular every day. “On many other online dating sites, where no identification is required, people expect nothing but shallow, flaky relationships. But in the case of SNULOVE, most members are looking for a real, serious kind or relationship. Couples are highly encouraged to go public on SNULOVE, and many of them already have, showing SNULOVE is a place for healthy, long-term relationships. Furthermore, since SNULOVE is not for profit, we don't feel any pressure to just offer as many matches as possible. Instead, we focus on finding the right person," he answered, when asked about what are the merits about the website.

However, the exclusive online dating community has drawn some criticism as well. “I feel like talk about ‘filtering’ or ‘verification’ itself implies a sense of class distinction. It is just odd that SNU people should find their partners among themselves,” says JEOUNG (28), another SNU graduate. LEE (24), an SNU student, states “The way SNULOVE matches SNU people seems really cliquish. I believe it is important to meet various types of people from many different backgrounds, especially when it comes to romantic relationships.”

A step aside from this ongoing, heated debate, there is a high probability of love being something much more unpredictable than people think. Like the famous American writer Sarah Dessen wrote,"There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment." With or without SNULOVE, what ultimately matters will always be people’s hearts and nothing else.

Written by LEE Sukyoung, SNU English Editor, sukyoung123n@gmail.com
Reviewed by Eli Park Sorensen, SNU Professor of Liberal Studies, eps7257@snu.ac.kr
Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor, morningcalm2@gmail.com