“Enclosed is your invitation to the SWAT Marriage Pact. Congratulations on choosing the very best insurance against marital disaster,” read the campus-wide email from Marriage Pact organizers, kicking off the survey’s second run at Swarthmore on Dec. 1. With already 676 signups by Dec. 4, a flurry of campus-wide participation ensued, resulting in 1,179 submissions and a new collection of humorous and surprisingly heartwarming matches.
The now-annual Marriage Pact returned this year, shedding any lingering mystery from its initial launch and cementing itself as a new campus tradition. Designed as a 40-question survey to identify each respondent’s most statistically compatible partner on campus, the pact encourages students to reflect on everything from personal values and politics to ambition and sex life.
This year, the excitement reached new heights, with over two-thirds of the student body participating, surpassing the organizers’ goals. Student organizer Sam Tampubolon ’26 noted, “I think over two-thirds of the [first years] took it, so it was nice to see that [first years] were excited about something.”
Organizers noted that the high level of engagement is achieved primarily through social networks, with participation spreading quickly among friends rather than relying on traditional promotion. “It’s funny, because my friend, who’s the drummer in my band, got matched with my girlfriend,” Colin Laich ’29 recalled, “My girlfriend and I now plan on going on a double date with him and his girlfriend.”
The pact employs the Gale-Shapley matching algorithm that originated as an economics class project at Stanford; it has since spread to over 80 colleges. While the core questionnaire remains mostly uniform, organizers ensure that about ten questions are customized to reflect Swarthmore’s specific culture. Given the student body’s reputation for intellectualism and focus on social justice, questions probing ambition and activism were intentionally included.
Among this year’s most talked-about pairs was James and Thomas Shelton ’28, twin brothers at Swarthmore.
“We’re twins, so of course we’re gonna match well,” James said with a laugh. “We got a 99.6% match. I got an email that was like, ‘Your match is an engineering major,’ and I was like, ‘Oh no.’”
The brothers had a hunch they could be paired. To avoid the predictable outcome, Thomas adjusted his preferences before matches were released.
“He just changed his preference to straight so that we don’t match,” James explained. “It’s just at that point it’s not fun, because it’s like, yeah, we knew. But generally, it’s fun to put your name in and see what happens.”
Tampubolon emphasized the community-building aspect of the Marriage Pact. “I think at Swat, most people would agree that the social scene is pretty atypical. Having something where it’s like, ‘Did you fill out Marriage Pact?’… It’s just a fun thing to kind of bring the campus together.”
The moment where the matches are released has itself become a community event. This year, as emails landed in inboxes, chatter erupted across campus from dorm rooms to academic buildings. The moment it came out, students dropped what they were doing to find out who their match was.
Sunny Wiggins ’29 recalls the hilarious absurdity of the match they received. “I laughed out loud,” they recalled. “I was paired with the only other Sunny in the [first-year] class. We both have buzzcuts and use they/them pronouns.”
Tampubolon said he hopes to formalize this communal reveal in the future. “We were thinking maybe that’ll be something that happens next year, where everyone congregates in one place to open them,” he said, inspired by traditions at larger universities. “What if you run into your Marriage Pact there?”
While the algorithm occasionally produces eyebrow-raising pairings, participants largely approach it with a sense of levity. The survey questions — ranging from whether you’d generate your marriage vows with ChatGPT to if you consider yourself smarter than the average Swattie — inspired debates among friends filling it out together.
James recalled one particular question that sparked discussion. “There’s one that’s like, ‘I would never bring a hook-up home to an unmade bed,’” he recalled. “Other people were like, ‘Well, I would never even bring a hook-up home.’ I was like, ‘Guys, it’s about if you’re neat or not.’”
The overarching goal, according to organizers, is to inject a bit of low-stakes fun into the Swarthmore social landscape. “It’s supposed to be kind of unserious,” Tampubolon said. “It’s just supposed to be something for fun.”
For a campus with a dating scene often perceived as high-pressure and subject to public scrutiny, the Marriage Pact offers a shared, gamified experience where the primary reward is a good story. “I don’t know if the Swat dating experience is any different than any other college, really, just because it is a smaller school,” remarks James, “I feel like it has the potential to be just as awkward anywhere else.”
Whether it leads to a lifelong partnership or just a momentary laugh between friends, the 2025 Marriage Pact succeeded once again in giving Swatties something to talk about.
“I think it’s just like, you know, it’s not supposed to be anything serious,” James advised. “Take it with a grain of salt, have fun, I think, is ultimately what really, really matters. And if you take it seriously, you’re not doing it right.”
Editors’ note: James Shelton is the Photography Editor for The Phoenix.
