I'm assuming that Victorian ideals were still very prevalent; but then again college was still college, filled with hormonal early adults. Would a couple keep it under wraps? Would they be judged for being sexually active? Would you meet a potential young lady at a party/pub?
Immediately after the War, at Harvard there was what's known as the Secret Court of 1920. I don't know if these men had served in World War I, but many seem to have been at the university during the War (which makes me suspect they did not serve, since the War was fairly short for Americans). You can read the Wikipedia, or the multipart Harvard Crimson article on the Court, 2, 3.
The findings of the court was that many of the men were engaged in illicit, homosexual activity. Eight students were expelled, many just short of graduation, and Harvard chose to make sure alumni services would not write them positive recommendations. Several of the involved students committed suicide, one before and several after the investigation (indeed, the first suicide spurred the investigation the initial investigation). One anonymous witness claimed that the committee was wrong focusing on only one group of homosexuals and that there were many more. One of the accused claimed there were more than fifty homosexuals at Harvard that he knew about.
From reading this, which is only based on the notes of a secret tribunal that expelled these young men, it's difficult to say how exactly they met, how they found each other. It seems, though, that it wasn't as "under wraps" (at least among the student body) as one might expect, though it was certainly shocking to thme administrators. While it's possible that such activity was introduced during the War, I think it's reasonable to suspect that similar things may have been going on a few years earlier as well.
The most evidence we have for how the courtships preceded is from an anonymous letter:
While in his Freshman year he [Wilcox, the young man whose suicide instigated the investigation] met in college some boys, mostly members of his own class, who committed upon him and induced him to commit on them ‘Unnatural Acts’ which habit so grew on him that realizing he did not have strength of character enough to brake [sic] away from it concluded suicide the only course open to him. The leader of these students guilty of this deplorable practice and the one directly responsible for Cyril Wilcox’s suicide is Roberts, 2C. Roberts’ rooms at Perkins 28 where he and more of his type have, during the past college year, conducted ‘parties’ that beggar description and how in the World such parties ‘got by’ the Proctor is quite beyond me. At these parties were sailors in uniform whom Roberts and friends of his type picked up in the streets of Boston and used for his dirty immoral purposes. At these parties were notorious young male degenerates such as Harold Hussey, and Ned Courtney and many others of the type and many of them dressed in womans [sic] clothes which they brought with them and appeared in public hallways and entrys of Perkins so dressed.
Similarly, one of the accused described to the court directly how he became involved with homosexuality (both quotes are from the Harvard Crimson article):
Under pressure from The Court, Wollf admitted to participating in homosexual acts himself. He said he had “begun the habit” as a 12-year-old in school. The practice increased, he told The Court, when at the age of 16 he attended a prestigious boarding school, which was “permeated with homosexuality” and “mutual masturbation.” Since he had been at Harvard, though, Wollf said he had had only two homosexual encounters—until he met Keith P. Smerage, Class of 1921, at the Dramatic Club. The two had supper together and, because of Smerage’s constant allusions to homosexuality, Wolff realized that his dining companion was a homosexual, he told The Court.
That night he spent several hours in Smerage’s room. The two “took off all their clothes,” he said, and “mutual masturbation took place—one each.” The same thing happened on one other occasion, he said. Wollf told The Court that his second fling with Smerage was his last. “He was fighting hard and felt that he had overcome the habit,” read the Court records. “Says he is 90% OK.”
[...Smerage] said he was first introduced to homosexuality by an older boy in high school and confessed to having had many homosexual relationships.
If I can add onto this, would there be much difference in mens' versus woman's knowledge? Did sexual knowledge and tolerance differ much by Western country?