For its 2010 cycle, the First Year Job Placement Program (FYJPP) received 144 applicants for 131 available positions.
Manager of Student Employment Kevin Johnson said, "It's the first time it's happened," in the three years he has worked in the Student Employment Office (SEO), adding, "I don't know if this has ever happened in the past."
The FYJPP assists incoming first years in the process of finding on-campus jobs during the summer prior to their matriculation.
The number and types of jobs available through the program vary from year to year, as they are brought to the SEO from different departments on campus. According to its website, the most common FYJPP employers are Information Technology (IT), the libraries, Dining Service and academic departments. Participants in the program are expected to take whatever job is assigned to them for one semester.
Johnson said that the SEO first filled the positions with applicants who receive financial aid, a procedure stated on the program's website.
The SEO determined which non-aid recipients received placements by the order in which they applied to the program; 16 non-aid recipients received placements.
Johnson pointed out that the Class of 2014's FYJPP cycle was "the only instance, when I've been working at the College, where [the SEO has] taken into consideration" whether applicants receive aid or not, aside from the small percentage of community service jobs that require student employees to be federal work-study grant recipients.
Though the total number of applicants to the FYJPP increased from its 2009 cycle, when 137 members of the Class of 2013 applied and received job placements, the number increased in approximate proportion to the overall increase of the size of the first year class.
Approximately 28 percent of the Class of 2014 applied to the FYJPP this year, and approximately 27.7 percent of the Class of 2013 applied last year.
Approximately 239 first year students are on financial aid, a figure determined using the statistic that of the 510 first years, 46.8 percent are receiving financial aid.
The 115 applicants to the FYJPP that were given priority due to their receipt of financial aid represent approximately 47 percent of the recipients of aid in the first year class.
First year Walter Wuthmann, who is not receiving Bowdoin financial aid , said "I found out about it a little late...but I did it before the deadline. [The SEO] sent me an e-mail in early August saying I didn't get it, which was kind of a bummer because my parents wanted me to help pay for college. Because I had a volunteer job this summer, I didn't actually make money. So I wish I had got a job, but it's OK for now. I definitely am going to try to get a job in Brunswick or through the [College] somehow later."
Wuthmann said it was "very understandable" that the job placement process does not immediately work out for everyone. "I'm not bitter," he said.