When Laurie got to college as a freshman, she was newly single and ready to casually date a few guys before settling down into a long-term relationship.

“I kind of had this false hope that I’m going to date a couple people and then I’m going to find the man of my dreams,” Laurie, now a junior at the University of Wisconsin, said.

Laurie quickly found, however, that dating on campus does not quite work out that way. Instead of finding herself getting asked out on a number of dates, she quickly jumped into a lifestyle many consider a freshman girl’s rite of passage: drinking, partying and, of course, hooking up.

Before long, getting drunk on the weekends and having a casual physical encounter with a random guy became the norm for Laurie and her girlfriends. They would share crazy stories with each other of the previous night’s adventures or hookups, even keeping a tally of guys they had made out with — most of whose names they could not recall.

Over time, however, the hooking-up lifestyle began to take a toll on Laurie.

“It was just getting really old. It was fun, but then it wears out,” she said. “I don’t even know these guys. I would see them on campus and they wouldn’t even know who I am [because they were so drunk]. It’s upsetting to feel like that is all there is.”

There was one instance in particular that put her over the top, making her realize her newfound “sexual liberation” maybe was not so liberating after all.

“One night I was at a party, I pulled a guy into a closet, and I went down on him right there,” she said. “That was probably the biggest instance where I was like, ‘Laurie, what are you doing?'”

Laurie’s story of hooking up – and feeling regret after the fact – is not uncommon.

Forty percent of college women nationwide say they have hooked up, according to a study conducted by the Independent Women’s Forum. One in 10 reported having hooked up more than six times.

Women who have hooked up reported feeling both positively and negatively about the experience. Sixty-one percent said that a hookup makes them feel “desirable,” but also makes them feel “awkward,” too.

For many college women, hookups may be both a way to express their sexuality without traditional restrictions while also being the result of pressure placed on them by both men and society.

“There are standards put on women not to be too uptight but not to be too loose,” publicity coordinator for the Campus Women’s Center Jessica Harrison said, adding the emotional toll of hooking up weighs differently on the two genders.

“You often see men and women emotionally handling [hookups] differently at the end of the day,” she said.

Yet many women embrace hookups as a way to remain sexually satisfied without having to worry about being tied down or having their independence stifled.

Nevertheless, even women happy about having casual physical encounters face difficulties in navigating their way in a hookup culture while dealing with old-fashioned notions of what constitutes a “good girl.”

Indeed, many girls have a hard time dealing with pressure to hook up and the opposing fear of the “slut” label.

“I just don’t want to be called easy, a whore or a slut,” Kate, a UW sophomore, said.

But Kate said worse than demeaning names society can associate with women who have hookups is the disappointment many girls feel after having a casual physical encounter with someone and then having it not lead to anything more.

“I think a lot of girls confuse hookup relationships with dating,” she said. “A lot of times guys won’t consider it meaningful, but the girls get attached.”

For herself, Kate, who used to regularly hook up with guys, said she is now looking for a more serious and “meaningful” relationship. And though getting a date in college “has just not happened” for her, she has given up hookups in hopes for something more.

“I think a lot of hookups leave you kind of empty and confused. I realized hookups don’t really have a point, and [I] have stopped doing them since,” she said, conceding though she made an exception to her no-hookup rule over Halloween weekend.

“Because that’s Halloween.”

At the end of the day, many women on campus say the most important thing is not whether women hookup or not. It is that they approach physical relationships — casual or otherwise — with their best self-interest in mind.

“You have to know who you are and really be strong and make decisions based on you, not because of TV or your sorority sisters,” Harrison said. “If you are doing [hookups] for yourself — fabulous. But if you are doing them because everything around you is telling you to — then maybe you should think about it again.”