Angela and Rylan met through Datamatch in 2020 and are still together today. (Photo courtesy of Angela Gormley, WashU alum)

As the days get longer and Valentine’s Day quickly approaches, love is floating through the WashU air. The arrival of Cupid also brings around another guest: Datamatch. A matchmaking survey managed by Harvard undergraduate students, Datamatch uses an algorithm to match respondents together based on a variety of self-surveyed preferences and characteristics. 

The survey consists of 16 questions specifically designed for WashU students. Participants can decide if they want to be matched for “love,” “friendship,” or both. They can also fill out a bio to introduce themselves, and answer several other questions, such as their zodiac sign, love language, and even a space to include social media handles. 

Even with this slew of questions you may be left thinking, can an algorithm really help you find your soulmate? Despite widespread doubt, in rare instances, some individuals have actually found partners through the survey process. 

Among those few individuals was WashU alum, Angela Gormley, who matched with her partner on Datamatch during her first year of college, back in 2020.

“It was basically all my new friends at the CSC [Catholic Student Center] who convinced me to do it,” Gormley said. “They just said, ‘You have to do it because it’s a funny survey, and it doesn’t matter. You don’t really talk to the people, you just sort of see who you match with.’”

Gormley filled out the survey, not thinking much of it. She selected the “friendship” option and matched with six people. One name stood out to her. 

“It was Rylan, and in the back of my head, I was like, ‘I’ve seen his name before. It’s in my phone contacts, but I don’t know who this is,’” she said. 

Gormley had been going through her contacts for months, deleting old numbers. However, she decided to keep his number because his name sounded “cool” which worked out in her favor. 

“I saw that he was one of the people I matched with, and he was also kind of cute, so I thought, ‘What the heck? I’m gonna text him and just figure out where we must have met each other or why I have his phone number, because I have absolutely no idea,’” Gormley said. 

Gormley reached out to Rylan Gottron on Feb. 14, the day matches came out. They decided to meet up the next night for a romantic dinner at the Bear’s Den.

The morning of their date, Gormley was getting orange juice at Paws & Go when she ran into Gottron.

“I sort of lingered, like ‘You look like the person I’m supposed to meet later, but I’ve never met you,’” she said. “We saw each other but we didn’t say anything, and then later we confirmed.”

Their awkward initial encounter didn’t deter their date whatsoever.

“We ended up just talking for three and a half hours,” Gormley said. They found out they were both from the DC area, and actually had a few mutual contacts, despite Gormley being from Virginia and Gottron being from Maryland.

Since Gormley had selected “friendship” on her Datamatch profile, Gottron initially wasn’t quite sure where their relationship stood.

“Two months of us dating, [Gottron] was still like, ‘What if we’re not actually dating because she didn’t say she was interested in a partner on Datamatch.’ I was like, ‘No, I didn’t say that.’ I didn’t even think anything was gonna come out of it, I was just taking the survey,” she said.

Shortly after they met, the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down and forced everyone to stay home. However, it worked out for the couple. They FaceTimed every day for about two months before their families told them to go see each other, since they lived so close. 

“We went hiking and then we just started hanging out all the time over the summer and got to know each other’s parents,” Gormley said. 

This upcoming Feb. 15 will be five years since Gormley and Gottron’s first date. 

“It’s going well,” Gormley said. “We’re currently living together … which is a good time. And yep, we’re really, really enjoying it.”

Gormley recommends filling out the Datamatch survey for anyone considering it. 

“Even just for the fun of answering the questions and seeing what they come up with every year, it’s already worth it,” Gormley said. “And you never know what will come out of it, whether that ends up actually being a relationship or a friendship or just, you know, a bad story about someone accidentally matching with their ex, which has happened several times.”

This Datamatch love story is only getting more successful as time goes on.

“I think we’re getting engaged over the summer,” Gormley said. “That’s [what the] timeline seems like it’s working out to be.”