For many students on College Hill, love is not in the air — 69% of students reported their relationship status as single, according to The Herald’s Fall 2025 Poll. But many are still searching to find their perfect match.
This February, more than 50% of on-campus students signed up for Marriage Pact — an online matching algorithm based on a personality survey — according to one of the organizers Felipe Barbosa ’27.
Marriage Pact started in 2017 as two Stanford University students’ final project for an economics course, The Herald previously reported. Since then, it has spread to over 100 schools. Last spring, the algorithm was brought to College Hill for the first time.
In 2025, 3,158 students signed up, and this year, that number climbed to 4,177. Barbosa called this response “mind-blowing,” saying that when he first brought Marriage Pact to Brown, he expected it to reach “500 people max.”
“There are people in other schools that got married off of Marriage Pact. So that’s my dream for Brown,” Barbosa said. So far, he doesn’t know of any marriages coming out of Brown’s Marriage Pact — but that doesn’t mean the algorithm hasn’t seen any success.
The Herald spoke to two couples who met through last year’s Marriage Pact algorithm and are still going strong a year later.
‘A quintessential college date’: Laila Muhanna ’28 and Julia ‘Shri’ Shrier ’28
When Laila Muhanna ’28 first heard of Marriage Pact, she wasn’t completely sold. “I kind of thought it was just a gimmicky type thing,” she said. “I’m very much an in-person, let-things happen-naturally type of person.”
But Muhanna decided to fill it out after a friend from another university encouraged her, and she “didn’t really think much of it.”
Julia “Shri” Shrier ’28 said that they filled out the survey for fun, open to “something serious” but with “very low expectations.”
When Muhanna and Shrier were matched with a 99.1% compatibility percentage, they were not complete strangers. Instead, the two had already met at a cappella auditions in September 2024.
The two had a “really lovely conversation,” Muhanna said. “And then we never saw each other again because we were taking totally different classes.” But when the results came out, Muhanna recognized Shrier’s name immediately.
Muhanna said their prior interaction helped her feel less pressure going into meeting Shrier after the match. “If it had not worked out romantically, I knew that we were gonna be friends,” she said, noting that they had “definitely hit it off conversationally.”
Soon after the results came out, Shrier said they reached out through Instagram with a message their friends described as very “forward.”
“I was really concerned that because we’d already met that I might friend zone myself accidentally,” they said.
Muhanna and Shrier immediately set up a first date and began frequently messaging on Instagram. “We talked about everything,” Shrier said. They soon found out that Shrier was taking a class taught by Muhanna’s dad, who is an associate professor in comparative literature.
“I was like, oh I can’t fail this class now,” Shrier said.
Shrier called their first date “a quintessential college date.” They met at Ceremony and talked for two hours before eating dinner at Andrews Commons. “I think for both of us, it was pretty immediately a deeper level connection,” Shrier said, noting that there wasn’t much small talk.
When the date came to a close, they both wanted to see each other again as soon as possible, so the pair made plans to meet again two days later for dinner. “I just couldn’t fathom waiting for as long as we had waited for the first date to have another date,” Shrier explained.
From there, the two continued texting and hanging out until they made their relationship official soon after Valentine’s day.
Shrier said they are “a walking advertisement for Marriage Pact.”
Now a year into their relationship, Muhanna and Shrier have had many conversations about their future together.
“Whenever I envision five years from now, I can’t imagine (Shrier) not being there,” Muhanna said. The pair has discussed post-graduate plans and what season they would want to get married in. Muhanna says “definitely summer,” but Shrier isn’t sure.
“I’ve just found myself so grateful,” Shrier said. “The last year … has been so amazing.”
‘The resident experts’: Sofia Torre ’27 and Logan Suryamega ’27
Sofia Torre ’27 and Logan Suryamega ’27 both decided to fill out the Marriage Pact survey last year “for fun” and with no real expectations.
“All my friends were doing it, so I was like, what’s the harm in filling it out?” Suryamega said.
Before revealing the full name of a match, Marriage Pact releases their initials and concentration. Suryamega and Torre said that “there was sleuthing on both ends” when they saw the other’s initials. They both were able to find each other before their full names were revealed.
“I have LinkedIn premium. So I was looking through my recent profile viewers, and I saw that she viewed my profile,” Suryamega said. Having recognized Torre’s initials and concentration, Suryamega determined “this is definitely her.”
Torre was at a tap dance rehearsal and Suryamega was at volleyball practice when the full results came out, and they officially confirmed each other as their match. Other than “one offhand interaction,” Suryamega said, they did not really know each other prior to Marriage Pact.
Torre took the first step, messaging Suryamega through Instagram soon after the results came out. “I was gonna reach out, but then she beat me to it,” Suryamega said.
After chatting online, they decided to meet at Dave’s Coffee. There, they talked for five hours straight. After that, Suryamega said it was “a little bit of back and forth” until they made it official in April.
Torre and Suryamega’s compatibility percentage was a high 99.98%. Suryamega said he thinks that number is “pretty accurate,” and Torre agreed.
Torre noted that they have “similar views on things, but (they) can still challenge each other in ways, in a good way.”
Now, their friends jokingly refer to them as “the resident experts” of Marriage Pact. As they look to the future, Suryamega said “regardless of what happens, I think that it'll work out.”
Both Torre and Suryamega encouraged anyone who does Marriage Pact to reach out to their match.
Sometimes, people can get “really shy” messaging someone “out of the blue,” Torre said. “But I feel like the fact that you’re paired with someone kind of makes it easier to do. So why not?” Torre said.
Torre also emphasized the importance of “being meaningful about how you communicate with a person,” and added that “casual hangouts” are always a great option for a date.
“It makes me feel very happy that people are actually meeting and getting to know one another” from Marriage Pact, Barbosa said. “It’s cheesy, but I think Brown needs more love.”
Rachel Wicker is a senior staff writer covering affinity and identity. She is from Athens, Georgia and plans on concentrating in English on the nonfiction track and International and Public Affairs. Outside of writing, she enjoys reading books of any genre and doing yoga.
