So you’ve decided to get serious about online dating, and as you’re looking for a grownup relationship with someone educated and successful you’ve signed up for Elite Singles.
This elite matchmaking site is a great choice if you’re looking for a serious connection and the education and professional position of potential partners are important to you.
With a focus on finding seriously good matches and a mostly desktop rather than a mobile presence Elite Singles might initially seem a little confusing if you’re used to the simplicity of just logging on and swiping away to your heart’s content. Yes, even if you have an elite education!
I mean, I have a graduate degree and you should see me trying to do my taxes or keep track of where I put my keys. If you want a full and complete rundown on the joys of Elite Singles, then I’ve written a guide that you can take a peek at here.
But keep reading if you just want to know what the mysterious symbols on Elite Singles mean.
The most confusing symbols on Elite Singles are those at the top of everyone’s profile – to save space or time, or maybe just because they thought it looked cool, Elite Singles’ UX designers decided to represent the basic stats questions everyone answers with little pictures rather than, you know, words.
Some of them, like the cigarette, are really obvious. Others not so much! So here’s what the more confusing among them means, plus a bonus explanation of matching scores (don’t say I’m not kind to you)!
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The Symbols
Matching Score
Possibly the most confusing symbol on Elite Singles, the heart with an arrow through it in the top right of suggested matches’ pictures represents your matching score with that user.
The number below the heart is the score, with all scores out of 100. The higher the score, the better a match you two will be.
Matching scores are calculated using a combination of your preferences and your personality test scores, which are compared to other users’ preferences and test scores until matches are found.
Read my in-depth post on Elite Singles to learn more about how it works here.
The Briefcase
As you will probably have gathered by now, Elite Singles puts a lot of stock in what its members do for a living. The briefcase represents work, and what’s listed after is the user’s job.
So briefcase followed by CEO means that the user is a CEO, or possibly pretending to be a CEO because who just says CEO? A little more info, please.
But I’ll leave weeding out matches prone to exaggeration to you. I’m just here to decipher the symbols on Elite Singles.
The Mortarboard
Otherwise known as ‘those hats that people throw in the air at graduations, but only really on TV’, the mortarboard is one of the universal symbols for education.
Along with the scroll. And probably a bunch of other things. Maybe a pencil? A book? Or they could have used the word.
Anyway, this is where users list their education level, so it might say, Bachelors Degree, High School, Masters Degree, etc.
As about three-quarters of Elite Singles users have at least one college degree, there may be a fair amount of showing off going on in this area of most profiles.
The Globe
This is where users record their race – it’s a weird symbol for it, but I can’t think of a better one so I suppose I’ll let it slide.
The Halo
A silhouette of a bust (like head and shoulders bust, not the other kind you ingrate) with a halo on represents religion. Seems pretty Christian-centric, but again I don’t know what I’d replace it with! Any ideas?
Couple of Speech Bubbles
This is where users tell everyone what their primary language is, which is super useful info, but once again not an obvious symbol!
Baby Carriage
Okay, kidding, no one has called it a baby carriage in about 70 years. It’s a stroller, in some parts a pram.
This represents children, and whether your match has them, wants them, or simply isn’t sure about them.
I mean, they aren’t sure about whether or not they want them. Hopefully, if they have kids they’re aware of them…
Person Being Measured
Okay, you must have worked this one out. The answers are pretty huge context clues – what else would be in feet and inches (get your mind out the gutter!
And that would not include feet!)? It’s your match’s height.
Final Thoughts
The symbols might not be super obvious to everyone, but the information they portray is really useful and should help you to find a great match who you gel with in terms of ambition and drive as well as getting along day today.
You will have noticed that you can’t see pictures on Elite Singles without a premium membership, which is pretty annoying, but if the site is ticking your boxes and you’re thinking about taking the plunge then why not check out my comprehensive rundown of its cost and membership levels.
And if you want to give it a proper try before committing, then have a go for free here.
