By Allison Mudge

Ask around for the definition of “hooking up” and it’s likely everyone will have a different response. Meeting a guy or girl, kissing, taking someone home, sex – and everything in between – “hooking up” is a loosely-used phrase without a clear meaning.

Regardless of its meaning, Boston may be one of the nation’s best college towns for hooking up, according to a recent study by the makers of AXE body spray.

Boston ranked eighth on the list of “Best College Towns for Hooking Up in America,” and received sub-category rankings of seventh for male-to-female ratio and first for the highest single population, placements that were met with mixed reactions from some Northeastern students.

That Boston has the number one singles population is “ludicrous,” said Matt Lishansky, a senior international business and marketing major.

The rankings were devised by rating college towns on 33 criteria, including male-female ratio, single population, weather and bars per capita. Each category was weighted (more weight was given, for instance, to the results of sexual behavior surveys than to the amount of health clubs per capita) and towns were ranked within each of these sub-categories.

The study, done in conjunction with Sperling’s Best Places, ranked Austin, Texas, at the top of its “Best College Towns for Hooking Up in America” list. Austin is home to some 50,000 college students, according to the study.

Boston is home to 41 colleges and universities and over 196,000 college students, who make up almost six percent of its total population, according to the study.

The study does not explicitly define what “hooking up” entails; it seems intentionally vague for the express purpose that various people define the term differently. Northeastern students considered hooking up to mean several things, from making out to various sexual encounters.

A closer look at where Boston ranked among various sub-categories may serve as a clue to why it ranked eighth overall. In addition to ranking seventh for male-female ratio and first for singles population, Boston grabbed the twelfth ranking for sexual activity and fourth for bars per capita.

The high singles rank coupled with the relatively lower rank for sexual activity could simply have to do with Boston’s location, according to Wini Breines, a sociology professor.

“It could be that it’s [the city itself],” Breines said. “The northeast is kind of a more cautious or zipped up kind of [area] than a lot of other cities.”

Northeastern students echoed Brienes’ observations.

Chris Kiely, a sophomore finance and insurance major, said he was not surprised Boston has the highest singles population given the amount of students in the area. As for ranking twelfth for sexual activity, “it probably has to do with where we are,” he said. “We’re all wrapped up in our clothes, going to class.”

Kiely said he considers “hooking up” to mean anything from “sleeping with someone to making out.”

In spite of disagreeing with the singles ranking, Lishansky said he too was less surprised the city ranks lower when it comes to sexual activity.

“You would think