An Inside Look at Boston’s Campus Sex Culture

People date, but not so much seeking a romantic relationship as to say, “I want to verify publicly that I’m not just seeing this person to fuck them.”

—Kara, 19, Boston University

For the most part [I use condoms]. If I know they’re on birth control and I know they’re clean, I might not, but sometimes when I’m drunk, the lines are blurred a little bit.

—Mike, 21, Berklee School of Music

There’s more of a hookup culture in the apartments nearby than anywhere else. All you really have to do is hop on an elevator.

—Kelly, 22, UMass Boston

BU is famous for the jock hookups. MIT is famous for its frat parties. Harvard students are famous for entering and graduating as virgins. UMass Boston is famous for having absolutely no defining characteristics. Simmons is famous for the girls being thirsty, because they never get guys. At Berklee, they’re all musicians and they’re all just sort of into musicians.

—Eden, 22, Northeastern University

Sports aren’t really the main focus here, so Quidditch parties are where you go if you’re looking to hook up.

—Rebecca, 21, Emerson College

Boston has a lot of sex-positive shops, and BU does the whole sex-in-the-dark thing. But at BC, for example, students were threatened [with expulsion] over passing out condoms.

—Anna, 22, Boston University

I think most people use condoms, but because of the presence of alcohol, there’s this thing that happens the next day when women come to each other’s aid in terms of Plan B.

—Grace, 23, Tufts University

Sex in Boston: This Is How We Do It

1–3   •   4–7   •   8–11   •   By the Numbers   •   He Said, She Said   •   Campus Sex   •   BDSM