It is February, and more than 5,000 Cornellians are waiting to hear back, not from the project team they applied to, but from Perfect Match, a Valentine’s Day matchmaking algorithm.
Perfect Match (also referred to as PM24), a student organization founded in 2019, has consistently paired thousands of netID-wielding students through the art of computer science. All matchmaking is initiated via the completion of an in-depth questionnaire.
PM24’s algorithm sifts through this information and provides each survey participant with around four to seven matches. Following the reception of matches, students are encouraged to reach out to one another using the contact information provided.
This year’s survey closed at noon on February 13th, with participants guaranteed to have their matches before the morning of the 14th. This year, survey participants were not informed of their matches until mid-morning, leading to an apology from the service’s administrators. With the website promising an “improved matching algorithm,” this season’s coupling was well anticipated.
In addition to the standard matching procedure, there are the optional features “Crush Match” and “Forbidden Match.” The former gives the option to provide up to five people’s netIDs, and if any of your “crushes” list you as well, the algorithm will automatically match you. On the other hand, “Forbidden Match” is a way to ensure you are not matched with enemies, siblings, or friends.
What is of interest to some, however, is the depth of statistical data provided by such an endeavor. Since its creation, Perfect Match has been appending the survey results and publishing them on its website – the data collected ranges from sleep patterns to political ideology.
For example, in 2023, the people with the most sleep on average are communications majors at 8.77 hours per night, with hotellies next in line. The political data speaks for itself, with 85% of participants being left of center (the majority being far left of center). Other statistics of interest are available on the Perfect Match website.
Participants receive basic information about their ‘matches,’ such as a short bio, major, and class information. Users can also list contact information and social media handles for ease-of-contact once matched. Profile information is only public if selected to be so.
The survey for PM24 closed on Tuesday, and with more than 5,000 participants, it’s already outdone last year’s numbers.
As of Thursday evening, a “quick glance” at PM24’s results is available on their website. Only 49% of participants chose “Romantic” as the type of relationship they were looking for. 33% were unsure, 14% “casual,” and 3% chose “platonic.”
The service delayed publishing results on Wednesday morning, as it was “physically impossible” to upload the more than 100,000 matches created by the service. The team published an apology for the delay on Instagram; however, this was not enough to forestall threatening messages to the service’s creators.
According to students involved with Perfect Match, the delay prompted online threats which forced the service to remove contact information from their website.
