“If we aren’t in a relationship by the time we’re forty, let’s just get married.” 

Instead of having to resort to this tired trope with someone you’re just “meh” about, a new solution for soulmate searching was just introduced: a Chapman marriage pact designed to pair students with their most compatible match based on questions about political, social, sexual and other preferences in a relationship or potential partner. 

Marriage Pact, which was created by Stanford University students in 2017, is a questionnaire that asks 51 questions with a response range of one to seven. The results are used to statistically pair students together based on their responses and overall compatibility. A few days after the pact closes, an email enters your inbox with your perfect match. Whether you reach out or not, that’s up to you. 

Senior communication studies major Kajal Reddy Padi signed herself up for the pact out of curiosity after hearing about it from fellow students. 

“I thought it was fun and I’m single,” said Padi. “I mean, why not? It’s like a safer Tinder.”

While Padi thought the survey was intriguing enough to take, she doesn’t think she will be doing much with the results. She’s mostly interested in finding out who she’s most compatible with at Chapman; but, she is still keeping an open mind.

“I don’t personally think Chapman’s a good place to find people,” said Padi. “But if somebody did take the test, it means that they are looking for something true.”

The pact is designed to act as a “backup plan,” not necessarily an immediate matchmaking service like the dating apps students are used to. While Hinge’s slogan is “designed to be deleted” in hopes that singles can get off the apps and turn into couples, Marriage Pact introduces itself with the reassuring “we hope you don’t need us.”

Followed by the warning: “but… better safe than sorry.”

The survey has actually churned out some successes: people have actually found themselves on the road to marriage with the person they were paired with. 

Chapman is only one of the most recent campuses to take this chance on love. The official Marriage Pact website boasts nearly 90 college campuses with their own pacts set up and over 233,000 matches created. 

Clearly, many students are willing to try out online love. Are students across the country so scared of being single that we are resorting to computational setups and percentile-based connection? Or is this just a fun activity to try with friends — like taking Buzzfeed quizzes or playing kiss, marry, kill?

Senior public relations and advertising and French double major Greta Cifarelli first found out about the pact through friends and social media. She thought it was a fun concept, so this past summer she teamed up with three other students of various grade levels and club involvements to bring Marriage Pact to Chapman. 

“I wanted to bring Marriage Pact to Chapman because I thought that the dating scene was bad,” said Cifarelli. “And I thought it would be a fun, unserious thing.”

She explained that the questionnaire will reopen each year for a short window of time. This gives Chapman students multiple opportunities to get the perfect match, and takes the pressure off, according to Cifarelli. 

“It’s really just a funny thing to see that you have a lot of the same answers as this person and maybe you’d be compatible,” said Cifarelli. “You should hang out sometime or become friends; or even if you’re in a relationship right now, but what if you were with this person?”  

The survey isn’t just limited to singles. The final question asks, “how single are you?” and the answer options range from “totally taken <3” to “help me pls,” opening the floor for everyone to join in. 

Some happy couples are even joining the pact together, like senior English journalism major Isabel Torres and her boyfriend. 

“I feel like it’s fun to know who you could be compatible with, even if you want to find a friend or something,” said Torres. “Who knows, maybe I’ll marry them in five years if I need to.” 

Torres is hoping that she matches with her boyfriend. But she sees a lot of potential in the compatibility matching to bring students together.

“It could be a fun experiment to see where it goes,” she said. “I think everyone should take it, because it’s fun to see the compatibility and it only works if everyone does take it.”

The pact closes Nov. 3 at 5 p.m. and results will be sent out within the following days. If students are in search of their soulmate, looking for a fun experiment to try out with friends, or want to test their relationship’s fit, they should enter themselves in this year’s Marriage Pact before the opportunity is gone. 

They might even meet “the one.”