Just my two cents,
I’m 27. Just four years out of college.
I would have a real hard time dating a college undergrad. They really are, well, kids. I think back to how I was as an undergrad, and this just reinforces things. There’s a huge maturity jump between college and working adult.
Of course, everyone is different. I’m sure there are plenty of highly mature undergrads as well as plenty of immature working adults.
And they’re all going to watch the Hannah Montana movie next month. Keep that in mind when you see them in class. I’m 26 and even I have standards. (Did you hear the buzz about the Race To Witch Mountain premere. God, I wish I was there. The Rock is awesome!!) Like I said, standards.
As for dating college kids. It’s not that they’re ten years younger; it’s that they’re at a different phase in their life. By definition, they won’t be college kids once they’ve graduated and have their first real job.
The exception is undergrads on the student newspaper. These college kids watch Hannah Montana…and review it.
Some interesting points. When I was in grad school from age 26-28, the undergrads seemed very young. Probably because a lot of them are 18-19.
The interns at work, however, who are older, don’t seem as young. I mean they are young, but it’s less like they are from another planet. Probably because we are in my world of professional adults instead of me being in their world of Hannah Montana and whatever else they like.
Isn’t the rule x/2 + 7? The age range is acceptable if the age of the younger person is at least half the age of the older person plus seven years. So for a 25 year old, a 20 year old makes it in just under the wire.
My wife and I got together when she was a 20-year-old college student and I was a 29-year-old shiftless grad-school dropout. That was in 1997 and we’re still going strong at 41 and 32. So there’s one dating-a-college-student story with a happy ending.
On the other hand, she was IMHO unusually mature for 20, and there’s a case to be made that I was immature for 29. So our experience doesn’t establish a general rule.
I’d guess Dan Savage’s campsite rule is as good a guide as any: ‘at the end of the relationship, the elder partner should leave the younger in “better shape than they found them”. This includes no diseases, no fertilized eggs, no undue emotional trauma, and whatever sexual education can be provided.’
rule of thumb: age/2+7=acceptable. In your case anything over 19.5 is ok
I was 31 years old when I started dating the last guy I dated. Perhaps I should have asked for ID, but I didn’t and neither did he. He was 22 and between undergrad and grad school. Turned out he was a keeper. We dated six years and have been married over 15 years.
You guys have too many “rules.” 
In mine it does. I was 24 when we met, she was 20 and a junior in college. That was ten years ago; we’ve been married for six years.
Daniel
Maybe a better rule of thumb is to think of the oldest person you would date. The youngest person would be your age minus the difference. A lot of people are like “oh I’m 35 and want to date a 22 year old.” Well would you date a 48 year old? Well it works both ways?
Of course. Get 'em while they’re fresh.
The last time I dated a twenty year old college student I was 25…She was the last person I dated, that was 17 years ago and we are still together, whatever that’s worth!!!
My thoughts.
I wouldn’t date freshmen between September and January. When I was a student still, it seemed like mid-way through the year was about the point where they no longer seemed like high school students and more like my peers.
Differing priorities will be a problem, as will differing schedules. Be ready to deal with this.
What someone said earlier about students being in relationships they expect to end with graduation–I would be especially wary of this if the student isn’t from the area. The further away their ‘home’ is, the more wary I’d be. I had a friend pull this one on a girl, and she was Not Happy (in his case, they’d been dating since his freshman year, but he wanted to go home after college. Home being the Middle East.)
Well, technically, I’m a ‘college kid’ (distance education at George Brown College), and I’m 45. But I don’t think that’s what the OP meant.
I definitely think compatible maturity levels, interests, etc, are more important than age in itself. I turned 18 the summer before I entered university, and I was still changing rapidly during all of first year. I didn’t really stabilize until a couple of years later.
On the other hand, when I left work and went back to school at age 29, I hooked up with an 18-year-old, and it was her idea. Oldest and youngest in the group, we were. That was an interesting March break. But it didn’t last more than a few months.
Sure, why not?
Though I agree that, if you both drink, “of legal drinking age” is probably a good idea. When I was 19/20, I dated a guy who was 28, and it was annoying when I couldn’t go to bars with him - I didn’t have a fake ID. It was fun, though, he was a good guy and while we didn’t end up together for a long time, I don’t regret it in the least.
I attended law school at a University I Won’t Name. Said university had a med school, and that med school had a “six year MD program” (students entered this program out of high school, then transitioned at the end of sophomore year of college to the first year of med school) as well as a traditional, post-bachelor’s MD program. The law and med schools shared a dormatory, and I spent my days rubbing shoulders with both six-year and traditional med students who lived in the dorm with me.
The difference between the two was night and day; the traditional students were much, much more mature than the six year students. I was shocked myself; I’d have never thought that the extra two years would have made that huge a difference, but it did.
Cheers,
bcg
This is pretty good advice. When you’ve been 21 for a while, you forget what a huge pain it is to check whether wherever you’re going has an age limit when you go out.
It just depends too much on the person. I’ve seen it work; a friend my age (21) is engaged to a guy about 6 years older (I think he’s 27). They’re even long distance during the school year. (I’m pretty sure they’re going to make it, too). I’ve also experienced it not working. I dated a 25 year old when I was 18. That crashed and burned; I was immature, and he was… he’s got issues, as I more clearly saw well after we broke up.
My boyfriend and I might still be in college, but we’re also holding down jobs. He currently has two part-time jobs (ice-cream maker and H&R Block) while still going to college. Many of my friends are supporting themselves while going through college; the maturity divide seems to me not to be age, but how heavily they depend upon their parents.
I’m 30. A few months ago, I briefly dated a 21-year-old recent college graduate.
While it was fun for a few weeks, I eventually ended up breaking it off. It just felt a little too weird - I met my ex-wife when I was 21 and she was thirty, and the parallels were just too much for me to handle.
Had my history been different, we probably could have had a lot of fun, but I wasn’t willing to take that level of responsibility for somebody. When I dumped her, I was very careful to explain that it was everything to do with me, and nothing to do with her.
Am I the only here who’s heard of the formula: (age-7)*2 = Acceptable max age of partner?
or the other way: (Age / 2)+7 = acceptable youngest age you should be dating.
So to use SunSpace’s numbers: (18 y/o college girl - 7)*2 = 22 max age of whom she should be 'hooking up with. Plus I don’t think you’ll find too many parents who would be ok with their 18 y/o daughter dating a 29 year old. That’s just creepy.
And if you use the formula to calculate how young SunSpace can go it comes to 21 or 22 depending upon which way you round. As a parent I wouldn’t care for that, but I could live with it I suppose. No, on second thought, that’s a bit creepy to. 
That just doesn’t work for me. I’m 51. 51 - 7 = 44. 44 * 2 = 88. The thought of dating an 88 YO seriously creeps me out. (Before I stopped dating (at age 50), I’d more or less arbitrarily drew my upper limit at about 55-57, depending on looks–I’m so shallow.)
51/2 = 25.5 (I’ll round up to 26). 26 + 7 =33. I feel less squicky about that, but I don’t know too many 33 YO women interested in dating a 51 YO man. Hell, before I stopped dating, I was turned down by a few 45-48 year old women for being too old…
Obviously, these formulae only work for a limited age range, it seems.
Cheers,
bcg