Stanford’s heart seems to be elsewhere this November.
Compared to last year, Stanford’s marriage pact submissions are down considerably. As of Wednesday evening, students had recorded just 3,640 submissions, down one third from 5,386 at this time last year.
Presumably, these losses are thanks to ASSU’s Marriage Pact competitor “Date Drop,” which claims to have over three thousand students enrolled. While Marriage Pact is a once-yearly tradition, Date Drop offers weekly matches where students are required to “opt-in” each week. It’s unclear how many students participate on a weekly basis.
Marriage Pact is also seeing an increasingly skewed gender ratio. Last year, the Marriage Pact team chose to delay the final enrollment deadline by one day, thanks to an uneven enrollment in the “heterosexual marriage market.” With a total estimated heterosexual enrollment of 3,936 at the time of that announcement, there were 144 more women enrolled than men, indicating a 48% female and 52% male split.
This year, the numbers are much worse for straight women. With only 2,825 signups, there are 264 more women than men enrolled in the “heterosexual market,” according to an email sent Tuesday morning. According to the 2024 Campus Report, 75% of women and 83% of men identified as heterosexual in last year’s Marriage Pact. Applying these statistics to this year’s enrollment numbers, we reach an estimated gender ratio of around 44% male and 56% female, leaving around 21% of straight women without a match.
There’s still 24 hours for enrollment to catch up, though. As of Wednesday evening, Marriage Pact has pushed back the final deadline twice, and added an additional question: “How single are you?” The absence of this question (known as the “relationship question”) was widely cited as a reason for not filling out Marriage Pact among the student body.
Marriage Pact officially ended on Thursday at 6pm PST.
Have opinions on the Date Drop / Marriage Pact divide? Send us an email at contact@arboristmag.com.