12/12/2023 0 Comments Creators of harvards data matchThere were also four short-answer situational questions. The questions ranged from basic to raunchy-the first edition of the questionnaire asked applicants to pick between one of nine height ranges what they wanted in their date’s SAT score whether their race should be “Caucasian,” “Oriental,” “Negro,” or some combination how much they believed that they were a “conformist ” and whether they were sexually experienced or believed that “romantic love is necessary for successful marriage.” They even added a question about their ideal date’s bra size that they ended up throwing out. The founders sat down, thought about their own dating criteria, and just wrote them. The questions weren’t scientifically designed. “One in a Million” was printed in big, bold letters at the top of the survey’s second page. Today, online dating sites are a dime a dozen, but in the 1960s, Operation Match was years ahead of its time. Three weeks later, the clients would receive a sheet of paper with the names and contact information of their top six matches. Their answers would be recorded on punch cards and run through a room-sized IBM 1401 computer. They would then mail their answer sheet to Cambridge along with a $3 fee. To enter, its clients filled out a paper survey with 75 questions about themselves and the same 75 questions about their date’s ideal characteristics. The three of them-Tarr, Crump, and Ginsberg-managed Compatibility Research Inc., Operation Match’s parent corporation. Tarr then solicited the help of his chemistry-major roommate Crump. Ginsberg who would later attend Harvard Law School and become nominated to the Supreme Court. Morrill dropped out of Harvard soon after, but Tarr, who majored in mathematics, hired a “more or less homeless” Cornell University dropout named Douglas H. So Tarr and Morrill created the very first computer-based matchmaking service in the United States. Tarr hoped to automatically sort out people who were “not appropriate” for each other. They wanted a better, more surefire way to “fix up” people. In the fall of 1965, Tarr and Harvard classmate Vaughan Morrill III ’66 grew tired of the insufficient dating scene. “Maybe your mother would tell you about someone who was going to a college in the area,” he explains. The main alternative to these mixers was, in Tarr’s words, being “fixed up.” “It wasn’t uncommon to drive out to Smith back then,” Crump adds. Harvard boys even ventured as far as an hour-and-a-half off campus for mixers. “You’d ask yourself, ‘Why am I here?’” Crump says. But these mixers were never quite the ideal environment to find a match. Like other 20-year-old boys in 1965, you might have gone to these mixers to meet girls. Girls came to these mixers from all over: “Wellesley, BU, whatever,” recalls Jeffrey C. These mixers were in basketball-court gymnasiums with DJs playing records inside, and, occasionally, maybe even a live band. The Radcliffe students who took classes with Harvard boys but lived in the the Quad couldn’t enter the then male-only Lamont Library, but they could get into intercollegiate mixers-if they paid a small fee. Dating apps like Tinder and Bumble don’t exist yet it will be a long 29 years before Harvard’s own Datamatch is developed. It also doesn’t help that the College isn’t co-ed and the gender ratio in each of your classes sucks. Cambridge doesn’t yet have shuttles to ease the long trek between Harvard Yard and the Radcliffe Quadrangle. Picture this: You’re a 20, maybe 21-year-old Harvard boy in your junior year of college-hormonal, kind of a nerd, not really sure how to talk to girls. It’s the spring semester of 1965, and what we would call “cuffing season” in 2018 doesn’t yet have a name.
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