> However the colleges and universities will need a new way to corner the market on conferring elite status
While historically colleges and universities might have been concerned about that, they gave up on that business model many decades ago. The modern business model of colleges and universities is to provide a dating network comprised of similarly-aged, like-minded people who all reside in close proximity to each other.
While services like Tinder could pose some threat to that, I think you'll find that such services have only served to enhance that college network by providing greater discoverability within that network. The "all reside in close proximity to each other" feature offered by colleges is an important feature. The reality is that most people aren't otherwise going to travel cross-country to find their match. These Tinder-like services haven't figured out how to solve for that part on their own, leaning heavily on proximity that already exists.
So, I don't think there is any immediate threat on the horizon for colleges and universities.
While historically colleges and universities might have been concerned about that, they gave up on that business model many decades ago. The modern business model of colleges and universities is to provide a dating network comprised of similarly-aged, like-minded people who all reside in close proximity to each other.
While services like Tinder could pose some threat to that, I think you'll find that such services have only served to enhance that college network by providing greater discoverability within that network. The "all reside in close proximity to each other" feature offered by colleges is an important feature. The reality is that most people aren't otherwise going to travel cross-country to find their match. These Tinder-like services haven't figured out how to solve for that part on their own, leaning heavily on proximity that already exists.
So, I don't think there is any immediate threat on the horizon for colleges and universities.