Datamatch Isn’t About Dating Anymore

“Expectations? No. Hopes? Of course,” said an anonymous senior at the College. 

Datamatch returned this February, inviting Harvard College singles to test their luck ahead of Valentine’s Day 2026. The platform was founded in 1994 by students in the Harvard Computer Society, originally beginning as a paper-based matchmaking survey. Every year, countless undergraduates sign up with their college email and complete a short survey detailing personal and romantic preferences. An undisclosed algorithm then generates both friendly and intimate matches to be revealed on Feb. 14. Datmatch’s algorithm remains a closely guarded secret, and the team declined to explain how it operates.

Similar to modern-day dating platforms, once the results are released, student users indicate interest in their matches, and mutual matches can connect over free meals sponsored by local Cambridge businesses, including Berryline, Shake Shack, Amorino, and Playa Bowls. 

This year, the platform expanded to more than 40 universities, with more than 8,200 students participating across the nation. 

On Harvard’s campus, participation has remained widespread in recent years. Though the program’s executive team does not track participation by class year, co-president Howard Huang ’26 shared that engagement appears fairly even and consistent across grades. “We don’t track students across years; many students do participate multiple times.” Huang told the “Independent.” “We don’t need to track anything to know that the algorithm works.”

Beyond the central match purpose, Datamatch’s additional features include an emoji slot machine game on the website homepage, where students can predict “what Datamatch will hold for you.” This year, the platform also introduced a collaboration with the artificial intelligence music platform “Suno,” allowing users to generate and send musical tracks tailored to their matches.

“We have heard many stories of serious relationships resulting from meeting on Datamatch,” Huang said. However, student experiences tell a slightly different story. 

Freshmen reactions reflected a mix of lightheartedness and uneven engagement. Some students said they were unaware of Datamatch altogether or forgot to complete the survey after starting it, while others expressed little interest in participating. “I filled out Datamatch as a joke, and put funny answers,” Miguel Dangond ’29 told the “Independent.” To him, this process was more playful than romantically pragmatic.

Meanwhile, Terry Lin ’29, explained how he attempted to rig the system to match with his friend. “I changed my answer to what I thought my friend would put, to match with her.” Lin had his reasons for this ploy. “[We] went on a Valentine’s date. It was a great experience,” Lin said. “I will go on a date with Melissa again, next year by Datamatch. She’s aware. I’m only going on a date with her once a year.”

Even after nearly four years of college, senior undergraduates still tend to treat the platform as lighthearted entertainment rather than a serious, Harvard-centric alternative to “Hinge.” 

“It’s always kinda fun to scroll through your matches and be like ‘shit, I know this person,’” the Harvard senior shared, discussing his motivations for filling out Datamatch. “I wasn’t super happy with my matches, which led me to not actually try to match with them,” he added.

“I feel like people make Datamatch for the sake of seeing eventual matches and don’t really end up going on the date, and I can’t lie, that’s my sentiment as well,” Audrey Zhang ’26 echoed. “My past experiences with Datamatch have been quite unsuccessful because people, including me, lack the initiative to reach out.”

For seniors, Datamatch functions less as a way to go on dates and more as a way to see who’s out there. Zhang didn’t fill out Datamatch this year. “I think I just felt so jaded and unwilling to put in the effort to create a profile. I’ve filled it out in the past, and neither the friend nor the love modes yielded anything fruitful,” she said.

Despite the freshmen perspectives now, Zhang voiced that her younger self actually had a lot of hope for the platform outcomes. “Freshman year, [Datamatch] was hyped up a lot, so I had higher expectations. Also, as an innocent young freshman, I had a lot of hope. Obviously, that was kind of dumb of me to think that way; I have matured lol.”

Student participant opinions match those of Datamatch’s web developer Jackson Moody ’26. “I do think Datamatch is mostly just for fun.”

Despite differences in freshman and senior sentiment, there was one thing that aligned: free food—a draw cited by Dangond, Zhang, and Lin. According to Huang, the Harvard Undergraduate Association allocated $5,000 to Datamatch at a recent general meeting to subsidize these meals, restoring funding after past data security concerns.

Still, students express desires for increased accommodations. “Thanks for the Playa Bowls, but they’re lowkey a bit small. They can expand their funding,” Lin joked.

Vivian Ye ’27 (vivian_ye@college.harvard.edu) has yet to try Datamatch and prefers observing results from the sidelines.