> You take it outside?

But take it outside... where? Where do you have to go when you share a bedroom with other people?

> Why do you have to maintain your relationship out of your room?

You don't. But you don't have a private bedroom either. So where does that leave?

Maybe your partner has a single room. Or, as others have mentioned, you make arrangements with roommates to stay out of the room for a bit--and maybe someone stays quietly overnight and the roommate tactfully avoids paying attention.

Trust me. Roommates are very common in US undergrad housing and students manage to indulge in, um, romantic behavior just fine. If there's a willing participant of the opposite (or same) sex, life will find a way.

Right. It just doesn't seem something an adult in a relationship should really have to do.

I didn't want (and didn't have) even housemates after school. Maybe it's a cultural thing (don't really know the norms in other countries, see you went to school in the UK), but having roommates through at least part of your time at US residential colleges is almost obligatory. And, as others have noted, it's often seen as part of the experience of transitioning to college.

> But take it outside... where?

Deserted stairwells, vehicles, closets, rooftops, basements, elevator-equipment rooms are better than nothing.

Ask your favorite search engine about [sock doorknob].

The fact that I was a lab assistant meant that I had a key to the roof of the science building...

Also many students in the US have cars.

Go on a walk? Take them to dinner?

The problem isn't dating, it's sex. The US doesn't really have love hotels.

…not all relationships need to include sex?

“Relationship” implies “sexual relationship,” otherwise you would just say “friend” and bedrooms would be irrelevant.