(I apologize for the long post, but I promise that this isn’t just me ranting or soapboxing; there’s just a lot of details I wanted to cover)

College student here who has had very poor luck with dating before.

I spent most of last semester cold approaching girls in the dining area, but it never resulted in anything more than a friendly conversation and occasionally exchanging contact information but then never making plans with them (anytime I’d reach out, they would say they weren’t able to).

I’ve also tried going to clubs and orgs on campus, and it’s been a decent way of meeting acquaintances, but it seems like most of the people in the clubs already have their cliques, and barging into a preexisting friend group seems like it would be rude and instructive.

I’ve also tried dating apps, but almost never get any matches, even after having asked some friends to review my pictures and bio and them saying it looks pretty good.

There’s also a very small number of girls in my classes, so I don’t have many opportunities to meet people there, either.

I still try cold approaching girls, usually at least once a day, and I always try to ensure I remain both confident and polite whenever I do a cold approach, but it still usually never extends beyond a friendly conversation. It’s also become increasingly more difficult to do cold approaches, because it seems like most people now sit with their friend groups at lunch (I’ve only ever tried cold approaches on people who are sitting alone, since a 1 on 1 just seemed more effective).

I really don’t mean to come off as an incel or self-entitled, but I just don’t understand what it is I’m doing wrong. I like to think of myself as being decently attractive, very hygienic, and moderately charismatic; most of my friends agree with me on that. But I feel like I’ve been trying all the advice and tips that I’ve read online, but have had no luck. Is it just a number’s game, where I should just keep doing what I’ve been doing, over and over, until I eventually find “the one”? Is that how most other people meet their significant other? Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.