Senior Class Committee Runs Fall Match-Making Survey to ‘Get the Sparks Flying’

The Senior Class Committee’s fall match-making survey sparked more than 2,800 romantic and friendship matches for roughly 900 participating seniors this year, according to first marshal Emmanuel T. Edwards ’27.

The “Match 13.5” survey, run over Halloween weekend for the second consecutive year, asked seniors to list 13 romantic crushes and one friendship crush – as well as prospective “ships” for their peers — in a preview of the traditional Senior Week match-making activity.

The Committee beefed up security on the backend this year in partnership with Datamatch, the organization behind the College-wide Valentine’s day match-making survey, Edwards said. The protections address a security concern present since personal information was scraped and leaked from Datamatch in February 2024.

“‘Match 13.5’ has stronger database protections than even the very strong database protections of past years, and that was a big push from the Datamatch team,” Edwards said.

Second class marshal Nigel C. Savage ’27 said only a small number of people could access the class roster and even fewer people had permission to see match data. Savage also said the data would be deleted in 20 days.

“All of the names, all the matches, all the crushes will automatically delete in 20 days to make sure no one’s information is getting leaked,” Savage, a former Crimson Business executive, said.

Participation in the survey stayed roughly level with last year, according to data shared by Edwards and results posted on last year’s Class Committee’s Instagram. Edwards said students submitted 2,685 crushes and 1,342 ships this year, resulting in 2,835 random and mutual matches. The prior year turned out 1,083 matches, per the Instagram post.

“‘Match 13.5’ is an opportunity to seek out connections — whether that’s friendship or romance — that maybe you haven’t explored, in an environment where the clock’s ticking a little bit,” Edwards said.

The Class Committee also expanded the survey this year by letting seniors select friend crushes as part of their list of prospective matches — indicated by the “0.5” in 13.5.

Edwards said he saw the pilot friend option “work out live in person” when two of his mutual friends who hadn’t known each other previously connected through the survey.

“Now they’re gonna hang out, get to see each other,” Edwards said. “It’s just really amazing that a connection that had passed them by throughout the past few years was able to materialize because of ‘Match 13.5.’”

The survey results, released over Halloween weekend, informed seniors of mutual crushes and shared the total number of crushes — reciprocated or not — that they received.

Alexander W. “Alex” Eckford ’27 received crushes from 26 other students, he said, though he admitted he filled out the survey at the last minute and didn’t end up matching with anyone.

“I wasn’t really trying to match with anyone in particular,” Eckford said. “I was just showing up for one of my friends and rushed it a little bit. So I just put down people I knew.”

Kenith W.G. Taukolo ’27 said one of his friends found a successful romantic match through the survey.

“It’s going well,” Taukolo said of the budding relationship. “I guess the app really did do its job in providing connections within the senior class.”

Edwards said the activity served as a “low activation” way to get students bought into Class Committee events before programming ramps up later in the year.

“Ahead of some of the other events that we’ll be hosting throughout the semester — some of the more in-person events that we’ll host — I think it was a really cool way to get the ball rolling,” Edwards said. “Get the sparks flying.”