In Spring '06, A Young Man's Fancy Turns To Work . . .

McFarland works 65 hours a week. He also goes to the gym three or four times a week and spends Friday and Saturday nights in bars or clubs. He and his buddies aren't lonely, he says. "There's a lot of casual hooking up."

Hooking up, an uncommitted sexual encounter, has become synonymous with dating, says Ele Izadi, a 21-year-old senior and Diamondback writer. Easy to do and carrying no obligations, it's a convention that is tailor-made for the time-pressed. And it has turned Izadi off to any relationships at this time. "All guys want is the physical," she says.

Some singles still date occasionally. But after the second or third date -- or hookup -- with the same person, they find they must confront a question: "What are we?" Leah Veneziano, 25 and a sometime TV guest host in Philadelphia, is in that situation with a guy whom she has seen four times. "He's moving toward a relationship, and I don't want those restraints." She is about to call it off.

"Why start something now that has no destination?" asks sophomore Brendan Lowe, 20, the Diamondback's deputy news editor.

Could it be that this generation takes relationships too seriously?

If so, we shouldn't be surprised. From their preschool days on, they've heard messages of boundless opportunity and high expectations: First the perfect school record, then the perfect job. Why settle, then, for anyone but the perfect mate?

The phrase "in time" is key, says Jeffrey Arnett, a research professor at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., who has spent much of his career studying what he calls "emerging adults."

"We've given them the freedom to take their time to decide what their adult life is going to look like. We don't have the expectations anymore that they should be married at 21 and have their first baby at 22. Fifty years ago, that would have been normal, but now, what's the hurry?"

The researchers at Pew, a nonprofit initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts, were pursuing a larger project about online dating when they came across the young-singles data: 38 percent in committed relationships and 38 percent neither in committed relationships nor looking for them. Twenty-two percent were not in relationships but looking.

Wojczuk, the agent's assistant in New York, is certainly in no hurry. "I aspire to have it all," she says, "and not just in my career but my appearance, my activities and, at some point, a partner who reflects my best self."

And what kind of man would that be?

"Someone who's really smart and driven, but leaves work at work. Someone who goes out in the world, who likes the arts and doesn't take himself too seriously. Someone who gets my jokes, has a sense of humor and can get me out of my worry."

She admits she has "a lot of expectations. I'm sure I'll come to the point where I'm willing to compromise."

Until then, she's enjoying her girlfriends. "It's a lot safer just to hang out with them."