It’s like Cognomos, but for love
Ah, Valentine’s Day. For some, it’s a day filled with chocolate, red wine, and cuddles. For others, it’s a promise of half-priced chocolate come February 15, liquor a bit (or a lot) stronger than wine, and a day of self care (i.e., no opening your constitutional law textbook). No matter how you celebrated Valentine’s Day, the Students’ Law Society (SLS) wanted to make sure everyone felt the love this year.
For the first time, the SLS ran the Valentine’s Student Match Up. By February 4, students filled out a questionnaire run by Matchomatics, an external fundraising company. Matchomatics then generated a list of 27 students they were most compatible with in their year and other years that was distributed on February 14. They also provided students with their top five most opposite matches and mystery matches.
157 students participated in the event, including myself. Sana Najafi (2L) was my number one compatible match, while I was only fourth on her list (heartbreaking, I know). When asked why she participated in the event, Najafi stated, “I did a Match-o-matic quiz back in high school and it felt nostalgic to do it again. It’s exciting to see who you match with that is already a friend, and who you get that is not a friend (yet) but seemingly compatible.”
According to 2L Social and Finance Committee (SFC) representative Apollonia Mastrogiacomo, a member of SFC’s Valentine’s Day subcommittee, “The idea came out of brainstorming for a fun event that could be done virtually and did not require students to put in any more screen time.” She noted that most questions were already chosen by Matchomatics but, where possible, the Committee tried to pick questions that would be relevant to law students, keeping them “funny and lighthearted.” The questions ranged from asking students their height to where they would be if not in law school (the classic struggle between doing nothing as a trust fund baby and working tirelessly to pay off your undergraduate debt).
Mastrogiacomo emphasized that the initiative was meant to be a fun Valentine’s day-themed, community-building event as opposed to exclusively matching romantic partners. To achieve this goal, she noted that the questionnaire specifically did not ask questions about gender or sexual orientation and that the friendship aspect was emphasized in the SLS’ marketing.
“The goal of this event was to allow students to find out which of their friends and classmates they are most compatible with personality or interest-wise and to provide the opportunity for students to hopefully learn more about [or] potentially connect with classmates they had never met,” stated Mastrogiacomo.
In that regard, it seems like the event was a success despite most matches potentially knowing each other beforehand. Najafi commented that, “I’ve interacted with most of my matches to some extent already and they are all cool and chill. Now I have a good ice breaker to strengthen those relationships.”
If not for this initiative (and this article), I likely would not have reconnected with some classmates that made my list (or learned that I am “cool and chill”). Overall, for a low-stakes, low-budget event during pandemic times, the SLS Valentines Student Match Up was a great success that will hopefully continue in the future.
