I recently learned that my cousin, who found his wife on JDate, is going to be a father. My friend's sister recently wed her JDate sweetie as well. And more and more of my Brandeis chums are signing up for the Jewish online dating service, but it wasn't until recently that I realized how large a presence JDate has on our campus. Intrigued by its apparent success, I opened an account for myself. I grew tired after pages of pre-joining questions and eventually began to select options at random. I was, to my shame, not completely sure of my religious background (I settled on secular.) Once I had all of the necessary fields completed, I was able to do a search within my ZIP code. I immediately recognized quite a few Brandeis folks.

After counting both men and women whom I either recognized from Brandeis or who mentioned that they were students in their profiles, I tallied at least 36, the vast majority of whom are female. And that is only counting the members who listed Waltham as their location. Those who are seeking non-Brandesians more likely put Boston as their location.

The total number of 18- to 23-year olds signed up for JDate who have Waltham as their location is 36 women seeking men, five men seeking men, 20 men seeking women and two women seeking women. That tallies up to 63 college-aged JDate members from Waltham.

As I scrolled through an endless stream of JDate profiles, I was continually shocked to see pictures of my friends and acquaintances. I had no idea they were part of the system.

A myriad of questions sprung to my mind about JDate users: Do you only want to date Brandeisians, or do you go out of your way not to date Brandeisians? How fruitful is JDate? Have you gone on many dates? Have you been sorely disappointed with the outcomes? After some sleuthing, I reached several Brandeis JDaters, and with burning questions in hand, I found out why they venture online to meet significant others.

Meet "Todd." He joined JDate around March 2006 because he knew people who were using it and had heard good things.

"It turned out to be a great supplementary procrastinating tool to Facebook," he told me. In all seriousness, however, Todd says JDate allows him to meet Jewish girls outside of the "Brandeis bubble."

"It would be awkward to contact a girl in such close proximity," he says. "The whole point of JDate is to have contact with people you don't encounter in everyday life. So I focused on meeting girls outside."

His track record on JDate amounts thus far to three dates with one girl, and, at the time of the interview, a pending date with a new prospect on Thursday.

He gave me some insider advice.

"Most people use their screen name [as their user name], so if I see someone I'm interested in, I put them on my buddy list," he explains. This way, when she's online, Todd opens up conversation.

But is JDate just another way to stalk other people, much like Facebook? Todd tells me that you can see who views your profile, as long as they don't "mask" their account, which makes it impossible for others to know you viewed them.

"My method is very scientific," Todd says with an evil chuckle. "My method is this: You make the AIM contact [assuming their username is also their screen name]. Then you become Facebook friends to find out more about them, pictures and whatnot. Then, after that, the next step is phone conversations. And then, face to face encounter. That's my procedure."

To send a message directly to another JDate user, you must pay a price. The rates struck me as terribly high, $150 for 6 months, $100 for three months and $40 for one month.

There are competing Jewish online dating services, however, such as Frumster.com, Jmatch.com and SawYouAtSinai.com.

After spending nearly half an hour trying to locate Frumster's prices, I quit.

Jmatch, a site suspiciously similar to Jdate, is slightly cheaper, at $33 for one month, $66 for three months, and $99 for six months. SawYouatSinai is the cheapest of them all, with one month costing a mere $9.95, three months for $11.95 or six months for $14.95.

If the cost isn't a barrier, Internet-based romance seems to simplify the intensive, claustrophobic experience of dating on campus, students say.

For Todd, meeting people on JDate outside of Brandeis is a solution to his dating needs, and doesn't require constant access to the city.

"Jeff," who joined a month ago, has a different outlook on the effectiveness of JDate.

"I got convinced by a friend to join, and basically I wanted to meet other Jewish girls, make friends," Jeff says, "Date is a good way to do that." Unlike Todd, Jeff doesn't follow a procedure.

"It's hard to gauge somebody on AIM, or on the computer in general, when you are used to meeting people face to face," he says, which is why he prefers to limit his JDate use to merely making contacts, and then having real-life encounters, as opposed to prolonged Internet courting.

So does it work?

"It's definitely a good way to meet people," Jeff says, but cautions, "I don't think it should be taken too seriously."

Jeff, unlike Todd, chooses to talk only to fellow Brandeis students.

"Brandeis is full of intelligent, outgoing people, and, in my opinion, it's a benefit of JDate to meet more people here," Jeff counters.

Yael Mazor '08 is an on-again-off-again JDate enthusiast who has been a member since fall of her sophomore year.

"I've had very good luck on JDate," Mazor enthuses. "I would say out of the probably seven guys I've been out with, I've ended up having somewhat significant relationships with four of them."

Like Todd, Yael prefers to wade out of the Brandeis pond. "I don't date guys from Brandeis; that's part of why I'm on JDate," she says. "It gets to feel very claustrophobic [at Brandeis]. Your pickings are slim, so I tend to date guys who are off campus, [and] grad students as well, in the Boston area."

"I'm not against dating someone at Brandeis," Mazor adds. "It's just that I already know most of the guys who are my age around here."

Mazor gets a kick out of the fact that so many Brandeis students are on JDate, but are reticent to discuss their membership.

"So many people are embarrassed that they are on JDate, but I've had great luck," Mazor says.

So if you want to use alternative methods of finding your match at Brandeis, instead of relying on meeting that someone special by chance in line at Sherman, JDate might be just the ticket. And meeting people outside of the peripheral road is as easy as listing Boston as your home.

Some names have been changed to honor student requests for anonymity.