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Originally published in the Summer 2010 issue of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Magazine<\/em>, this story’s statistics were updated in 2015.<\/p>\n<\/section><\/p>\n On campus, \u201c60 percent\u201d launches some of the first conversations among incoming students. It\u2019s an icebreaker for first-year women crowded on a bunk in Smith. Or, during a pre-orientation AESOP trip, the upperclass trip leader shares the fact with her new charges.<\/p>\n Later on, the statistic might be used to tease a friend after his or her embarrassing encounter, romantic or otherwise, with another ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ie: \u201cHey, it\u2019s 60 percent \u2014 it could happen!\u201d<\/p>\n Or, much later, the stat might come up in an awkward conversation, like when someone asks the senior couple who\u2019s been dating since freshman year if they\u2019re going to become \u201cstatistics.\u201d<\/p>\n Illustration by Marty Braun<\/p><\/div>\n And the statistic is perpetuated via many pathways. Besides word of mouth, it\u2019s published in at least one college guide. And the stat has history: A 1978 grad claimed to have heard then-President Thomas Hedley Reynolds announce at Convocation, \u201cLook to your left, look to your right. Sixty percent of you will marry other ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ grads.\u201d<\/p>\n Sixty percent grabs our attention, plays to our emotions and tests our imaginations. But can it really be true? Will over half of us really<\/em> marry one another?<\/p>\n Well, no.<\/p>\n The accurate figure, as of 2010, is approximately 12.5 percent. Of the 23,356 living alums in the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ database, 2,914 have a spouse or partner who is also a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ alum. (If you include alums whose ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ spouse or partner is deceased, the number creeps up a few points.)<\/p>\n (UPDATE: As of Feb. 13, 2015, of the 25,199 living alums in the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ database in 2015, 2,956 have a spouse or partner who is also a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ alum. That puts the marriage rate at 11.7 percent.)<\/em><\/p>\n Finding this real answer, and exploring the connection between myth and reality, was part of my final project in the seminar \u201cMarriage in America,\u201d taught by Rebecca Herzig, the Christian A. Johnson Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies.<\/p>\n Besides finding the real ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ marriage statistic, I interviewed various ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ people, and when they heard the real marriage percentage, they expressed genuine shock.<\/p>\n One not-yet-hitched senior female, figuring the pool of spouses was only the size of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, responded in relief. \u201cThank God, I still have time! I won\u2019t die alone with my cat!\u201d<\/p>\n The concept of alumni marriage is a bit less heteronormative these days: the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ group photo from the wedding of Sarah Wilson ’06 and Kristen Fries ’07 in October 2012.<\/p><\/div>\n Others went to great lengths trying to convince me that I was wrong.<\/p>\n They insisted they heard the figure recited during an official campus tour, while others named a long list of married ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ couples. One girl even tried to drag me to her dorm to show me the statistic printed in a college guidebook.<\/p>\n In fact, I found that other colleges of our ilk also tend to have a mythical marriage statistic. At Colby, the myth is 50 percent and the reality 11 percent, while at Carleton it\u2019s 60 and 15 percent, respectively. At Middlebury, the numbers are 60 and 13 percent.<\/p>\n The politics of marriage has influenced the very well-being of the College.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I was also interested in unraveling the meaning attached to both the 13 percent and 60 percent.<\/p>\n The politics of marriage has influenced the very well-being of the college.<\/p>\n Anecdotally, I found that people who are highly active as ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ volunteers are often married to other ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ies. And when a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ alum marries a non-ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ alum, a curious historical phenomenon has often come into play: The husband\u2019s college tends to get a greater share of the couple\u2019s philanthropy. (This can also be true at other colleges elsewhere.)<\/p>\n![\"60percent_final\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2015\/02\/60percent_final.jpg\")
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