I agree with reporting his behaviour as stalking. About the bus incident - you were being normally polite, not coming on to him. His reaction to your normal behaviour was to miss his stop and get off at yours. That's him pushing forwards but its not because of anything you did, and its normal to not know how to react. When these things happen it can catch you by surprise.

So now you know his behaviour is a problem, you can have some phrases ready beforehand. Its OK to say 'No thanks', 'no not really', or 'I'm not comfortable with that' or 'that's not appropriate'. You can also let him know how you see your relationship;

'What car do you drive?' - 'I'm not comfortable sharing that kind of personal info with people I don't know'.

"I'd kill it if I didn't like you so much" - ''That's not appropriate. I didn't ask for special treatment, I asked why the hold up.''

I think his comment about you not being a good dancer was an attempt at negging and if you spot him doing that again, its best not to engage at all and leave asap. Negging is supposed to make you defend yourself. Whatever you do don't get defensive with him, it means you have been drawn in.

Avoid taking the bus again. I know its inconvenient and in an ideal world you wouldn't have to change your behaviour, but he sounds persistent and unwilling to react to normal social cues.

It's too late now, but you should never have chatted with him that first day. He is stalking you. Keep a log (not online) of what he does every day. Like you have done in this post. Don't give him any personal information at all. Grey rock. Report him to the college police for stalking with a general account of his behavior - tell them you know there is nothing they can do until he assaults you but you want them to have his name and behavior on record so they know who to look for when he does assault you. Same thing with the regular police, because campus police are shit for protecting women on campus from stalker men.

He sounds like a creepy autist. Start carrying pepper spray.

I had to deal with a guy almost exactly like this omg. Prayers for you girl 😭, these types are like super glue. Luckily due to covid, our class switched to online class and I didn't have to interact with him again.

However the brief time I had to deal with him, being as boring and "shallow" appearing really helped. This moid liked me because apparently I was "not like other girls" so in his presence I'd basically do things he hated lmao. It was annoying but kept me safe and that's all I care about.

Looks like I'm here splitting the difference between the different camps of advice you're getting. Won't exactly say 'been there' despite having experiences with a number of similarities to what you've described because when creepy men fixate on you and glom on, there's a wide range of how hard it is to pry them off and how badly they react when they realize they aren't going to get what they want from you. One of mine finally got the message after he followed me to a social dance I used to go to with the baseless expectation that I'd dance with him and I point-blank refused and after he threw a full-blown screaming temper tantrum meltdown about it but then left me alone (aside from nonstop glares whenever in the same general area). I currently know a woman who got to the point where she told her stalker she's dying and completely stopped responding to him months ago, he knows she isn't actually dying, and is STILL bothering everyone he knows who knows her asking them if they think she 'likes him' and they all tell him no, leave her the fuck alone, and he refuses to get it.

First, please do approach this like he could be dangerous. He clearly has a fantasy idea of what his connection is to you, whether he wants a romantic relationship with you or not (although it kind of sounds like he does), and that's never something to brush off as 'harmless,' particularly when it's a man fixating on a woman. From what you've written here, I do see some concerning underlying aspects in his behavior to be cautious about. ..and to be prepared for.

These are the ones I see:

I was lamenting that an article I was writing was taking a while, and he straight up said, "I'd kill it if I didn't like you so much". This isn't a real newsroom, this also counts for my grade, wtf.

This reads to me like he's trying to frame his classwork as a 'favor' he's doing for you. Be prepared for him to try to pull a 'you owe me' later...and be heavily invested in that idea, and enraged if you don't give him whatever he expects in return. Also be prepared for him to potentially get vindictive and try to tank your grade if he figures out you want him to leave you alone. I'd suggest potentially discretely meeting with your class professor and giving a heads up that this has been going on; that your classmate who has been placed in the position to damage your work has been being creepy towards you personally, so your professor knows to keep an eye out. You're paying for this class, to learn, not to have this creep warp your classwork into a way for him to attempt to play footsie with you/massage his ego.

...he didn't get off at his stop - instead, he deliberately missed it and went an extra five miles to get off at my stop with me, and then walked across the street to a bus stop for the direction we had just come from.

This is very abnormal and reads as he was trying to get a better idea of where you live. He's probably twisted it into being 'that time that you both had a wonderful, intimate conversation on the bus, so much so you didn't want it to end and as a result he practically went 'home' with you.' For him, this is likely 'proof' to himself that you just enjoy his company so much and are happy to let him get closer to you, because you didn't shut it down. While that was a boundary that should have been firmly set then and there, 'don't follow me home just because we ride the same damn bus,' no point calling it a mistake, it's done and just something to be aware of going forward. Keep an eye out, now that he knows the approximate area where you live (presumably walking distance from the bus stop) he might show up in your neighborhood sometime looking for you/trying to 'run into' you, trying to locate your apartment/house, particularly if you manage to give him the slip at school after your class ends.

And in combination with that...

He asked what car I drive.

Without all of the rest of the context, this would probably be a harmless question, but here it sounds like, again, he's trying to get more information about you that would allow him to find you outside of class (maybe in combination with knowing your bus stop, to try to triangulate where you live). To leave things on your car, to wait for you by your car, to see where you go. On the creepier end of the spectrum, to plant a tracking device (that's incredibly easy to do these days).

Absolutely don't give him any more information about you. Definitely do document everything, write it down, etc., and tell people you know what's going on, who this guy is, and not to tell him anything about you if he tries to get information out of them; also worth learning what the laws are surrounding recording other people where you are if you don't already know them (some places don't allow recordings of others without their consent, which is a major disadvantage for stalking victims). Personally, I'd stop taking the bus, as inconvenient as that is, take a different route than the bus, leave a bit earlier and park at a bit of a distance from your class so he can't figure out which car is yours (and also, obviously, not returning to it when he's around you). Grey rocking might help to an extent, but depending on how delusional he is he might not need any real input from you and will just keep constructing fantasy to 'fill in the blanks,' reading things into everything you say and do (and don't say and do). If you haven't explicitly told him to leave you alone, you're not in a strong position to get authorities to take his stalking behavior seriously (not that they particularly do anyway, but that's usually treated as the first step they expect from you before they're even willing to consider ANYTHING else; for them, 'he won't leave me alone' tends to only start to count for anything after you told him to leave you alone and the rest gets viewed as fair game); if you DO tell him to leave you alone, he might escalate. It's a hard judgement call to make. It's a similarly hard judgement call for the same reasons when things have escalated to the point of considering a restraining order.

It sounds like it's worth it to maybe try to just stick out the rest of the class and try to avoid him after that, but odds are he has plans to keep this "relationship" going afterwards and it might be hard to get away from him. Don't be surprised if he ramps up his creepy behavior when it ends (and so he can't count on seeing you regularly unless he 'makes it happen'), ends the class with some big 'confession,' something like that.

This man is draining your time and energy to his own benefit. When men do this to me, I just start negging the ever loving crap out of them. He's used to you being nice to him and putting up with his bullshit, it's up to you to create boundaries.

Stop being the "nice girl" and start telling him how you really feel. Males require social rejection from females to understand how to act. By being nice you are letting him.know his behavior is acceptable. Definitely get someone else to edit your work. If he asks why, tell him he's creepy and annoying and you want nothing to do with him. You don't owe men shit. Put yourself first. Fuck his feelings.

You got yourself a Stage 5 Weird Guy Clinger. Is it stalking? If he escalates, it definitely is. Right now, he probably only knows romance from watching too much television and thinks that he's absolutely nailing it.

On the one hand, if you present yourself as more boring and barely interact with him, he may project onto you more, because now you're a blank slate and he lives in fantasy. I think the guy who was really into me finally gave up when I argued against him that men's rights were meaningless, so you could also try shattering his fantasy by actually talking to him too much about something he's clearly not into. If you have a niche hobby, that usually kills their boner. Make sure it's something he wouldn't be into at all and then only bring that up. Or bring up any drama/gossip you might be able to think of amongst people he'll never meet and are irrelevant to him. Men usually stay away from me because I like to talk about my own interests more than I like to listen to them talk about theirs.

Okay. The things you are describing he does seem relatively harmless and something that someone who has a crush would do, especially if they have very little experience with relationships.

He sounds awkward and probably has zero friends. He does not seem to have a lot of experience in creating friendships or in dating.

He likes you and may want to date you and he certainly wants you to become really good friends. He thinks that because you have noticed his existence that there is some possibility of this and if he spends enough time with you that 'something magical' will happen and you will reciprocate his interest.

However...

You do not know him. You do not know his history. He is a man and you should be wary of his potential.

Grey rock, but don't blatantly reject him. If there are other people in class you can hang out with then try to make sure you are not alone in situations with him.

Break up your routine. Do not take the bus for the rest of your classes. Become 'very busy' and 'have a lot of appointments' you have to get to.

He is probably going to try and cling, but with just 4 more classes to go you can get through this.

Best to grey rock, but for some clingers that doesn't work. If he is one of those, you really need to find an occasion to insult him. Even if it's made up, like "Gosh, I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but you have the worst body odor." After that, wrinkle up your nose every time he is near. Then it becomes ego-painful for him to be near you.

The first thing I want you to do is listen to your gut

Do you feel he is dangerous? You are there, we are not

If he is dangerous, do whatever you need to do to stay safe

If not dangerous (or no more so than other men) then just start putting firm boundaries place

I really like what @Thelnebriati said about having phrases ready

My friend was really good with “I just want some time by myself right now” or “I’m going to just read my book now”

I’ve been on the other side of not taking a hint.

The safest and kindest thing to do is let him know you are not interested

Of he continues to press, then you know he is potentially dangerous

if he's studying the same field as you, it's possible you might have future classes with him. additionally, it's good for your resume/portfolio to have published articles, so there's some reason to continue writing for the school newspaper even after this class ends.

anyways, try to ignore him as much as possible. if he tries to talk to you while you're sitting somewhere on campus and ostensibly working on homework, say "I'm busy, go away" and don't engage. otherwise, give him boring and/or false answers to questions he asks. could you work in a library on campus where it's required to be silent?

be cold and mean towards him and/or shatter his fantasy like another comment suggests. also consider talking to the class instructor/professor about his behavior - particularly the weird comment he made about editing your article, if you think that might help.

think of an insulting nickname for him that you refer to him as in your mind. it seems silly, but it might kind of help in a cathartic type of way.

Tell him that your big hunky boyfriend gets sooo jealous when you talk to other guys and you should probably stop talking to him just to be on the safe side, but he's sooo wonderful and you're sooo in love with him and he's probably going to pop the question any day now