Sophomore Alex Horowitz had already been on a first date with her now-girlfriend Avery Shields when GW’s Marriage Pact became the second matchmaking algorithm to pair them together.

“We actually had matched on Bumble before Marriage Pact, and we had messaged a few times, and we had a first date planned,” she said. “Then we got Marriage Pact-ed in the midst of that.”

She said the timing could not have been more perfect given their recent introduction on the dating app.

“The day before Marriage Pact came out, we went on a date and then we got initials the next day, and they were the same,” she said.

Horowitz said quality time is a key component in a healthy relationship, and she and Shields have found ways to accommodate their busy schedules and heavy work loads by spending time together whilst getting classwork done.

“We’ve started studying together and doing homework together,” she said. “It’s pretty hard because both of us want to succeed in school as well as make time for each other.”

Horowitz’s said college is a “great time to be in a relationship,” because there are “so many places you can go and things to do,” with your partner. 

Juniors Kate Carpenter and Henry Long met in a freshman year meditation class but didn’t start dating until March 2021.

“Sophomore year, he had reached out to me because I’ve been in the Student Association for a while, and Henry had gone up in ranks at WRGW, the on-campus radio show, and he was doing podcasts for them,” Carpenter said. “I’m the Student Association girl, so they’re doing a Student Association podcast for WRGW. He reaches out to me to be on it. And I’m like, ‘Oh, of course. That’s the guy from meditation class.’”

Carpenter and Long said that podcast received more than 70 listens, a high performance for the show. But it wasn’t until seven months later, while classes were remote, that the relationship began to spark.

“We texted for about a month and a half, during the pandemic, did some FaceTime calls, because he was in North Carolina and I was in D.C.,” she said. “And then we went on our first date the day before his birthday. It was a super romantic first date, and then we started dating like five days later.”

Long said despite advice he’s heard telling couples to “never stop dating” to keep the romance alive, more realistic advice for college couples on a budget should be exactly the opposite.

“We always laugh about this because people always say ‘Never stop dating,’ and we had a joke about it this year because we are trying to save money in 2022,” Long said. “So we were like ‘Our new resolution is to stop dating and save some money.’”

Instead of fancy and costly evenings out, the pair work hard to devote a little bit of time each week just for each other, even committing to lunches every week at the same time.

“Even if the day is super crazy, in which a meeting comes up or there’s a crisis, like if it’s Tuesday, Thursday, we know we’ll be having lunch together,” Long said. “And so it’s like just a quaint hour where we can sit around and like nothing about anything else. We walk together and explore the city together. We’re lucky to live in D.C.”

Senior Emma Brady and her boyfriend Alexander Satin’s paths crossed freshman year, but they didn’t start dating until 2021. Brady and Satin lived on the Vern their freshman year but never formally met.

“He was my Vern crush,” she said. “I didn’t even know his name. I would just see him around the Vern and think ‘That kid is so cute.’ I literally thought his name was Nick.”

The two parted ways at the end of the year without ever actually meeting each other but were given a second shot when both moved back to D.C. in December 2020. As it turned out, their new apartment buildings were two buildings apart.

“I found out that apparently he thought I was cute too on the Vern,” she said. “And he didn’t know who I was. And he totally forgot about me too. So it’s just like a weird, full circle moment.”

Brady and Satin officially began dating almost two years after both living on the Vern.

“It was a very cute thing for me because I was like ‘Oh my god, I feel like I’m back in high school again. Someone likes me back,’” she said.

Brady said the couple’s favorite place to go in the city together is to the National Cathedral for picnics.

“He got me a really beautiful, cool picnic basket for our six month anniversary, so we love to use it like all the time,” Brady said. 

While the city offers endless entertainment, the most important part of a good date is the person you’re on it with.

“We’re literally never bored or anything but I guess because we’re dating that’s the reason we’re not bored,” she said. “So it’s like really like finding the right person and like doing whatever you can to like deal with them whenever you can.”