A student-created matchmaking algorithm has taken Stanford University by storm, transforming campus social life as thousands of students eagerly await their weekly matches.
Date Drop, a platform launched in September 2025, has quickly become an “all-consuming” force among Stanford undergraduates. The service, which pairs students based on compatibility factors and sends weekly match notifications, has already attracted nearly 2,500 participants—about half of Stanford’s undergraduate population.
“They’re always talking about who they want to be matched with, who they’re matched with, who their friends are matched with,” said Ben Rosenfeld, a Stanford senior and residential assistant who witnessed the platform’s immediate impact on the 77 freshmen in his dorm.
The platform was created by junior class president Madhav Prakash and Henry Weng, along with two freshmen collaborators, building on the success of a senior-only dating game called Senior Scramble that Weng had previously developed.
“Stanford is the best dating pool most of us will ever have in our lives,” Prakash told The Stanford Daily. “It would be a shame not to make the most of it.”
The algorithm behind Date Drop asks users approximately 50 questions about core values, processing styles, and other compatibility factors. It also incorporates feedback after each match to improve future pairings.
“The algorithm also gets better over time — we ask for feedback after each match and use it to personalize future matches,” Weng explained to the campus newspaper.
The platform includes gamified features like “Play Cupid,” which allows students to suggest matches between friends, and “Shoot Your Shot,” where users can privately list someone they’re interested in and be automatically matched if the interest is mutual.
This approach to algorithmic matchmaking aligns with research conducted by Stanford Graduate School of Business Associate Professor Daniela Saban, whose work has shown that properly designed algorithms can significantly improve matching outcomes. In her research with dating apps, Saban found that incorporating factors like user history and activity levels increased matches by 27-37% in field experiments.
“When it comes to dating apps, I not only want to show you people that you will like, I also want to show you people that will like you back,” Saban noted in her research on matching algorithms.
Date Drop has already shown signs of success, with students reporting positive experiences. Freshman Neel Ahuja joined as a way to take his mind off academic pressure, while his match, Mila Wagner-Sanchez, saw it as “a good way to meet people, something different.”
The Date Drop team has been responsive to student feedback, adding features like class filters to prevent matching first-years with upperclassmen. They’ve also noted a gender imbalance, with 83 more women than men signing up for the first round of matches.
As the platform continues to evolve, its creators maintain that their goal is fostering genuine connections. “The single most important factor in determining the quality of your life is the quality of your relationships,” Weng said. “If people end up in meaningful, healthy relationships, we call that a success.”
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