Tinder U sponsored their second annual Swipe-Off this year. The Swipe Off is a contest the dating app created as a publicity tactic meant to promote their Tinder U feature, which allows college students to link their Tinder with their university email. The feature is supposed to match you not only with more students from your school but also students from colleges in the surrounding area.
The 2019 contest prize was a free Juice WRLD concert featuring Charli XCX for the students at the winning school. After the last minute changes in Spring Weekend lineup, Fordham students were definitely eager for the opportunity to win this contest.
The aim of the Swipe Off? Be the school to get the most right swipes on their students by the time the contest ends. The initial competition is divided into an East and West bracket. The first round eliminated all but the top 50 schools from each coast, the second round narrowed it down to 25 from each, and the third round named the top 10 from East and West.
Fordham students were surprised to find that they had even made it past the third round, and that's when we realized... we might actually have a shot at winning this thing. After the initial shock, Fordham students mobilized to secure the first place spot. Students who had never been on dating apps or who were happily in relationships downloaded Tinder U in a whole-hearted community effort.
I must've matched with over 300 other Fordham students within the last week of the contest alone. Rose Hill students, Lincoln Center students, single students, younger students, older students, students in relationships...there were no limits to who we were swiping on to win this thing. Almost everyone I saw around campus was swiping, talking about swiping, or waiting for their likes to renew after maxing out.
Some people got creative with their profiles, creating characters, posting memes, or leaving cute dog pictures. Most people went for the simple "Only here for Juice/Charli" in their bio.
When Tinder announced Fordham as part of the final four on April 8th, the students almost couldn't believe it. The last two days of the competition were an even bigger flurry of right-swiping and update-posting than before. There was a sense of camaraderie, community, and school spirit on campus that I can honestly say is unrivaled by anything else I've experienced in my three years here.
April 10th, 2019, Fordham was announced the winner of the Swipe Off and the Juice WRLD concert. It still feels unreal that we won, and students are ecstatic at the results of their hard work. This is the impact and the power we have when we come together as a school community though - it may have taken a dating-app contest and the promise of quality entertainment, but we did it. We finally united the Fordham Community.
