The problem isn't that college is a bad place to pick up, get a girlfriend, or even get laid; the issue is that it is portrayed as being the best place in the world for it without people acknowledging any of the limitations.
It is important to discuss the limitations. The article I posted above about fraternity life portrayed fraternity life as better for getting girlfriends through social circle game than actually pumping up the notch count significantly in most cases. Depending on the school, the bigger notch count getting guys are the football and basketball players with real NFL/NBA potential. Some baseball guys can do well if they have solid MLB prospects. In a large state school, the NBA/NFL/MLB prospects are a minimal percentage of men. Some smaller sport guys, such as tennis, soccer, or swimming, can do well with racking up notches with the right look. Those guys aren't going to get pro sports money in the future. Almost no one plays college tennis if they have ATP/WTA pro tennis tour potential.
The girlfriends that most fraternity men get are usually temporary. Those college romantic relationships are over by the time the guy is somewhere between 25-30 if he doesn't put a ring on it. If somehow a fraternity man marries his sorority woman college girlfriend, there's a good chance it ends in divorce by 40.
I'll occasionally peer into the social media profiles of the women from the top sororities of my early to mid-2000s era in college. Now that we're in our late 30s, most of the women married some post-college guy and have kids.
What I found to be the biggest disadvantage of college is not just how much status mattered but how so many girls felt like the eyes were on them if they were to be seen with the wrong guy. I was not the popular frat dude but lo and behold, I learned for sure that my looks weren't the problem. Three girls who were shy around me in college saw the same me in NYC over the summers, they were now coming up to me and saying they recognized me. One even went home with me and we f-cked.
From what she told me, there is a big pressure to conform to your crew and not get caught with the wrong person. This is why you do not really see that many guys picking up on college campuses if they are older. College is in many ways an extension of high school, thank Greek Life for that.
For guys like us who are into cold approaching and meeting random women, college is actually terrible because if she is hot, she likely feels the eyes of her crew on her.
Everything you describe here is indicative of Greek Life. This is less true of indie (non sorority) women. However, even indie women consider their crew to some extent.
I group women's looks into 4 broad categories: Below Average, Average, Cute, and Hot.
If you're a Hot woman, there's a high probability you are in a sorority at a large state school like the ones
@Degenerate Haven and I attended.
Cute women can be either sorority or indie. If you're an indie guy, the best you can do is a cute indie female. Making her a girlfriend is a decent idea but know that the girlfriend role is likely temporary, don't put a ring on it, and expect it to be over by your 25th birthday (assuming you attending college from 18-21/22.
Some women will date non-student older men but that's not overly common. An older, graduate student male has a better inside track on an undergrad female. However, in a lot of schools, the graduate and undergraduate populace do not interact all that much.
Best advice for college:
(1) Have a plan, have a schedule and stick to it.
(2) Grades come first
(3) Make time to work out (VERY important)
(4) Don't start eating like an idiot.
(5) Don't binge drink, EVER.
(6) Don't take drugs... (pot every now and then is fine, but don't go past that)
(7) Get involved in some campus activity that you are interested in. Could be anything (Greek culture, Chess, Rep/Dem student groups, Religious groups, intramurals) It doesn't matter as long as it something you like that requires socialization. Don't sit in your room with an X-Box with the same 3 friends drinking beer and eating pizza.
(8) Chicks come last, because if you do the first seven, they will find you.
Mostly true. Number 8 would happen in the form of good IOIs.
Number 7 is the most important. Number 7 is the best way to meet women with the least amount of difficulty and it gives you the best chance to meet someone who is girlfriend material.
Number 3 is the next most important because it will help you look good for women. Number 4 goes along with that.
Number 5 is where college men make the biggest mistakes. They either join frats and get blasted drunk at frat parties expecting that's how they'll pick up women or they are indie men at private residence parties trying to get laid there. This is a more difficult path to women, especially for the indie guy at the private residence parties. The private residence parties are either at off campus houses or off campus apartment complexes and the social ties at these parties are often weak. Generally, these are pre-cursors to night game at bars for the 18-20 year old set.