Probably, because they aren't mutually exclusive. Apps let you see women you don't otherwise run into through a social medium, bigger pool bigger chances.
Except that many of those women aren't real, and the ones who are are getting hundreds of messages a day.
The opposite is true on campuses. There are now far more women than men at college. Outside of IT/engineering, the ratio is around 3:2 and very favourable to men.
Many isn't a number. There's not much incentive to "fake" being a woman except to bait for payments without ever even meeting, so the pool is smaller than you project. The other incentive is on the part of the app owners who want to create the illusion of high membership, but I've only heard of this for Ashley Madison or the like. THere are plenty of women on Tinder, OKC, etc.
Yes they get more messages, they also filter and ignore many. That doesn't mean you can't land a date. There's a difference between guys who chase after absolutely everyone and guys who show more genuine interest in a person, and that comes through in the communication.
You're also preaching to the choir on college, I think the opportunity should be exploited to meet people in person, that doesn't mean online dating is rendered redundant.
I was in engineering and we had 4 or 5 women and hundreds of dudes.
Needless to say I was using dating apps a lot in that time.
I always pushed to meet in person early instead of weeks of chatting. Far easier to fight out if there is chemistry and you can continue chatting after (if it goes well ofc)
The computer systems technology program had around 300 people when I started it, and 3 of them were women. By the time we all graduated there were zero.
A few of us tried to game the system by choosing electives like "The Mating Game" but to no avail.
The opposite is true on campuses. There are now far more women than men at college. Outside of IT/engineering, the ratio is around 3:2 and very favourable to men.