Have seen it not work out... the cool cute frat guy in college doesn't always translate into husband and father material 10 years later. Had a couple we were friends with who were together since 19 divorce early 30's and the guy is living the 20's he never had. Unfortunately he's using my DH as his wingman (WTF!)

We met as a freshman and sophomore in college and did 3 years of long distance while I was in law school. Together 16 years, married 11. None of my other close friends married college or hs sweethearts, though in my wider circle there is one other college pair. H's brother also married his college sweetheart.

DH and I met at 15, started dating at 17, went to different colleges, but dated the entire time. Got married 12.5 years ago and now have two kids. Marriage is great.

About half my friends married a college boyfriend. The other half mostly married people they met online.

Odds? Who knows. But it happens and at least with older folk, college sweethearts (and some high school) got married frequently. Getting an "Mrs." was a real thing.

1) My aunt and uncle. They went on their first date when they were 12 years old. They were together until they died at roughly 70.

2) Their son and his wife started "dating" in 8th grade.

3) My ex was the first girl I kissed. At age 11. We drifted apart for decades and then "found" one another in another city. We were together for 20 years.

4) I have two friends who have been together since they were 12. That's 40 years.

As for college, lots of people meet in college and marry. And they stay married too.

I was 18 when we met, pregnant at 19 and married him at 22. We're still going strong almost 12 years of marriage later.

My husband & I started dating at 16 & 18 in high school. Went to different colleges a few hours apart (saw each other on weekends), then different grad schools father apart (saw each other every few months). Finally moved to the same town after that & got married after almost 10 years of dating. We’ve been married for 11 years. So far so good. The long distance part sucked, but it was well worth it.

I married my college sweetheart and we have been married 26 years. Having said that, many of those years (probably at least half) have been very unhappy and we are now, after 26 years, divorcing. In retrospect, we probably shouldn't have gotten married. But we got two beautiful kids out of the deal and they are worth all the pain and misery, 100x over.

I googled it, and 28 percent of married couples went to same college, 15 percent went to same high school. Don’t know if they were sweethearts though. I married my college sweetheart 25 years ago, and we are still in love.