Applicants to Bowdoin this fall need not worry. Interim Dean of Admissions Scott Meiklejohn hasn't noticed their latest relationship status change on Facebook.
Others are not so lucky. Kaplan announced last week that one in 10 admissions officers at some of the top schools in the country have been delving a little deeper into applicants' lives than some might expect.
The results were taken from a survey regarding the prevalence of college admissions officers' visits to applicants' pages on Facebook and similar social networking sites. The survey was conducted last summer, polling 320 officers from 500 of the nation's top schools.
Like most schools, Bowdoin has not instituted an official policy regarding admissions officers' use of Facebook. The issue, however, has been a recent agenda item in the Admissions Office.
"When I asked about [the use of Facebook] at the staff meeting, there were shrugs raised all around and absolutely zero interest in people saying, 'Yeah, I think we should do more with Facebook,'" said Meiklejohn.
Associate Dean of Admissions Anne Springer agreed. She referenced her relative lack of familiarity with Facebook itself, but said that "as long as [officers] conduct themselves professionally and are not releasing any business information, I think it's a private issue."
Springer, who has worked in admissions at Bowdoin for 19 years, mentioned the time constraints that officers face when getting to know their applicants. Facebook, she felt, may not be the most efficient route to the heart of a student's application.
"You want to be as fair and thorough as possible with the time that we have," she said.
Meiklejohn and Springer both said that Bowdoin's Admissions Office focuses on more traditional aspects of its applicants rather than seeking out students on Facebook.
"I haven't, and as far as I know, nobody on the staff has either," Springer said.
Meiklejohn mentioned the emphasis Bowdoin puts "see[ing] everyone's application in the most positive light." In situations where unusual questions arise, he turns to that student's college counselor rather than to a networking Web site.
"If everyone on the staff had a Facebook profile, I can't imagine the kind of stuff that would happen," he said. "Ninety-nine percent of it would not be useful."
Senior interviewer Eric Harrison '09 agreed that there "are so many better ways of looking for the well-rounded aspects of a student than their Facebook."
"It's opening such a can of worms, opening up so many other ways of looking at students," Harrison said. "I think it's dangerous if schools start looking at [Facebook] pages during any part of the process. It changes the whole game."
But Facebook, which used to require a college e-mail address to register, is now open to everyone, and its membership continues to grow. Senior interviewer Samantha Jessup said that due to this seemingly constant rise in popularity, a policy may perhaps be in order "in the next couple of years."
Harrison noted that it would be difficult to ensure fairness if only certain officers were looking at applicants' profiles.
"Ideally, all these schools would be on the same page about what they can and cannot look at," he said.
Sam Dinning, also a senior interviewer, said that the results of the Kaplan study do not come as a shock.
"The fact that people use any possible way to find out about a candidate doesn't surprise me at all," said Dinning.
High school senior Alex Hallenback of Waterville, Maine, who is applying to Bowdoin for admission into the Class of 2013, did not seemed fazed by the possibility of having his Facebook taken into consideration.
"Your Facebook is somewhat public and if people want to look at your Facebook I guess they should be able to if they want to," he said. "Students should know that people might be looking at it."
While admissions staffers at Bowdoin may not be using Facebook to scope out potential first-years, student interviewers cannot all say the same. Senior interviewer Patrick Costello mentioned that he and his colleagues have looked for certain applicants' profile pictures after an interview had been completed.
"Absolutely, for the very interesting kids. That stopped early in the summer, though, when we realized that it was really creepy. It was just one of those things," he said.
Costello said he made sure never to look at this information until after he had completed his write-up of the interview and was therefore finished with his evaluation of that student.
But Facebook can work in both directions: Costello said that he got "two or three" friend requests from applicants whom he interviewed over the summer.
"It was really weird. I did not accept. The other senior interviewers and I had a 'little conference' when [this happened] in the first month," he said.
Dinning said there is a "certain line in that relationship which is inappropriate to cross," a conclusion that was echoed by all.
Meiklejohn said that he "doesn't think anyone on the staff has a Web page."
At least two of the associate deans have Facebook profiles that are viewable on varying degrees of privacy settings to anybody in the Bowdoin network.
One thing is very clear: Students should remember that what they post is public.
"Students need to know what to expect," said Dinning.