Cuffing season is upon us, and Edinburgh students are on the hunt for luuurve. How do I know this? Because over 300 of you have placed your trust in The Tab to set you up for some winter lovin’. It’s flattering, it’s exciting, but most of all it’s REALLY insightful. Based on your applications to Edinburgh Goes Dating, we can now reveal what Edi students really look for in a special someone – from the good, to the bad, to the bizarre. So take note single pringles, because temperatures are dropping, Christmas markets are coming, and the time for cuffing is approaching fast.

The degree most desperate for love

Perhaps it’s because they are always too busy studying how to save lives or performing strip shows – but the most applications have come from medics. Alongside this, degrees making a consistent appearances include biology, politics, maths, history, and the various engineering courses. However, just about every degree has had at least one student step forward.

Now it’s time to juice it up with…

Your most common turn-ons

The answers to this were the most varied of all questions, with a lot of you expressing some real rogue aphrodisiacs. However, there was still a consistent set of turn-ons that made their way into most applications:

Ambition

Edinburgh students clearly find a hard-working, passionate and career-minded person very sexy. This word was used in almost every answer, which kind of makes sense being at Russell Group university.

Sporty/Active

Completely understandable –  there’s nothing attractive about a full-time couch potato. In fact, many of you specified sport in general as not just a turn-on, but an essential quality in a partner. Some of you even listed specific sports as ideal or essential, the majority of which included skiing, rugby and “goes gym” (if that counts).

All about that active lifestyle

Politically aware

Aren’t we an intellectual bunch? A large number of applications specified awareness of current affairs and politics as crucial in a partner, which is understandable because one can only chat shit for so long before they start to lose brain cells. Many people specified having opinions on current affairs and politics as a further requirement to simply having knowledge of it.

Friends in political places

A sense of humour

A classic requirement that speaks for itself really. Edinburgh students are funny intellectuals – not boring ones.

Couple goals right here

Your most common turn offs

Nobody held back in this section. While many answers were generic and others were weirdly specific, all were certainly made brutally clear. Here are some of the more reasonable and more random of the lot.

Arrogance

Of all answers to all questions, this was the most common, which is a little ironic as Edinburgh University certainly has its sizeable share of arrogant students. Nonetheless, it’s nice to see readers share a common disapproval of this grim trait.

Particular political parties/ideologies

A lot of you specified certain political preferences as deal breakers. The most common people you want to avoid are Tories, however, there were a few of you who also specified communists and Jeremy Corbyn supporters as a big no.

Lazy/unmotivated

Another classic that goes hand-in hand with Edinburgh’s love of ambition.

Still need those lazy days though

Degree of poshness

I found this one quite shocking given that it’s 2018 and you’d hope people have moved past class bias. Anyhow, a surprising number of you declared being either “posh” or “not posh” as a turn-off. One of you even generalised all “Northerners” as a turn-off, which was bizarre, to say the least.

Accent specification was also interesting. One guy un-ironically suggested that all accents are turn-offs “excluding American Californian, Texan, Australian or the Queen’s English.” I’ll leave that there.

Onto looks now…

What you find most physically attractive in a partner

How superficial are Edinburgh students, you may be wondering? Well, there were a variety of answers to this question. While some people wanted to date a hench rugby type man, others preferred a dad bod. Likewise, while some people requested dates with a slim-built woman, others requested curvy and athletic bodies as their most ideal. Both men and women often specified ideal hair colours, with brunettes and blondes being the most requested. There was also a large group of you who left us with just “not ugly please” or “really fit” to work with, which really wasn’t very helpful. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, people.

Where you would most like to go for a first date

A huge 50 per cent of you specified drinks as the most ideal activity for a first date, finding that having to eat in front of a stranger seems way too awkward and uncomfortable. Going for drinks provides a nice balance between conversation and activity.

After drinks, 14.5 per cent of you found a coffee date to be the most ideal, followed by the 12.5 per cent of you who would prefer the first date be a dinner date.

A sizeable drink to calm sizeable nerves

Stay tuned to hear about how this semester’s hot dates went – and if you’re still awaiting your lucky match, we’ll be in touch.