MIT admissions dean resigns over resume fraud. Ouch!

Parents Forum
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<p>Bethievt, I agree with you, and feel for her, and think this is a terrible way to see a career end. I can even almost understand how someone could have a lapse of judgment and lie about ONE degree, if someone is young, struggling, and desperately trying to get a job, and I can also understand how once having lied, how hard it would be to come clean. Not saying it is right or I approve, but, I can see how an otherwise reasonably decent person might do that. </p>

<p>But what I don't get is lying about THREE degrees (how did her family NOT know something wasn't adding up???), and what I also don't understand is if she thought it would be valuable and meaningful to have some college degrees, heavens, she has been living and working right there in Cambridge, and that city and Boston just has to have the highest concentration of colleges to pick from - how many schools was she within geographic proximity of - 50? 70? 100? All I know is there appear to be a LOT of colleges in that area, many that offer night classes etc., and, wow, she had a husband and only one child, it wasn't like she was a single parent with six children and no money and no way to get to even one night class, so, why didn't she make the effort to go get herself a college education, instead of just inventing one, x three? That's where any empathy or sympathy I might otherwise have for her just sort of flees...</p>

<p>Edited to add: I'm not "judging" her, and I think MIT is a wonderful, fantastic school. Anyone can make a serious error in judgment. But I do think her actions are a bit extreme (lying about THREE degrees???). And there may be very serious fallout for innocent parties - for example, I can easily see a new admissions director coming in and cleaning house, removing all of her incumbent staff - there is every likelihood a new admin director will want to remove all personnel who worked for her in order to restore the appearance of integrity. If that's how it turns out, that will be very unfortunate, as those people don't deserve to have their careers derailed because of a dishonest boss.</p>

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<p>How do you all know that there are no other lies or deceptions in her past? Maybe she got to where she is by telling more lies, or by getting qualified people fired.</p>

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<p>


The difference between the Stanford/USCD/etc. and MIT, is that MIT is still interested in training engineers and scientists as it's primary objective (for all students); this is evidenced in their core curriculum which highly emphasizes physics and math more than that of any of the school's you mentioned. If their objective is to train scientists and engineers, then I think it makes good sense to have someone with a technical background to evaluate which types of high school people are more pre-disposed towards success in technical areas. What I was saying is that without first-hand experience, she could only be judging applicants on what she thought was important for success, opposed to what she had experienced.</p>

<p>It would probably be better to do similar things at the other schools you mention, but since they don't require everyone to be highly proficient technically, I'll give them some slack in their decisions.</p>

<p>


You definitely make a good point, Ben. I'm curious, though, if she played any part in the discussion - I have no idea how influential she was in the administration.</p>

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<p>my thougt is that in 27 years or at the least the previous 10 an Honorary Award could have been worked out.......little creative thinking on her part.</p>

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<p>How does somebody live that many years atop such a huge lie? Wow. I'm just floored. </p>

<p>Where have all the ethical people gone these days?</p>

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<p>From MIT's admissions blogs...</p>

<p>Ben Jones | April 26, 2007</p>

<p>"Message From Ben And Matt"
Hi friends,</p>

<p>This story will likely be all over the news soon, so we wanted to write to you as soon as possible. It's a very sad day for MIT, and especially for our office. We'll write more about it in a few days when we've had the chance to digest it further, but right now we're really in a state of shock at the loss of our leader.</p>

<p>To make a long story short, Marilee Jones, our Dean of Admissions, misrepresented her credentials on her resume 28 years ago in 1979, when she applied for her first job at MIT. What started as a mistake in her youth was compounded over time, which she addresses in a personal statement.</p>

<p>We know you're going to have many questions around this, and we'll try to address them in the coming days. In the meantime, there are a few things we wanted to say.</p>

<p>First, as many of you know, Marilee has built her career around trying to make college admissions better - with more compassion and less anxiety. Many are understandably concerned that the momentum of this mission will be compromised by these events. But we pledge to you that as we recover in the days ahead, we will continue to celebrate and uphold all of the good that Marilee has brought to our office and to our field, and we hope that others around the country will do the same.</p>

<p>Second, many are asking why MIT didn't accept Marilee's resignation quietly. The answer is simple: transparency and openness, as you know from reading these blogs, are the backbone of our culture. People needed to know the specifics to avoid the rampant speculation that would undoubtedly follow otherwise. You need to know that this was a lie on a resume - not some big scandal surrounding our selection process.</p>

<p>Frankly, this is what it is, and there's nothing more to say about it that will be productive. We need to acknowledge what happened and move forward. </p>

<p>As we're sure you can understand, our office is quite shaken by this. Until we've had a chance to individually process this more, we don't want to host a big public thread on the topic, so please give us a few days to get back on our feet before we restore comments. In the meantime, you can always email us with questions and concerns.</p>

<p>Fondly,
Ben and Matt</p>

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<p>"Quote:
Originally Posted by MIT2001Dad
At the recent CPW, EVERY parent was saying "Marilee does not make a mistake!"
Well, given that only parents of accepted students would have been at CPW, that's not surprising in the least."</p>

<p>And I'm sure many students who matriculated at MIT are wondering why the heck they got in after they have to do the work among the geniuses who do get in.</p>

<p>I met up with a high school friend who is now a junior at MIT earlier this week at a funeral. I don't know her SAT scores (my guess would be mid-low 1400s), but she is a double legacy (with rich donating parents), well rounded (theater, cross country, good at humanities) and according to someone who sat in front of her, was cursing math under her breath during AP Calculus. I think there was immense pressure on her to go to MIT (she got in EA). She also was accepted at Brown, and the best way to describe her is as a stereotypical Brown student. She was in the top 3 in our graduating class, so her credentials in math and science were good enough for subjective criteria to swing in her favor. She presents herself well on paper. Doing groupwork in English with her was frustrating to say the least because she worked by trying to go through EVERYTHING instead of figuring out what was going to be important and seeking it out. Add that to control freak. I thought she should have gone to Brown. Because she would have gotten a job in theater or the arts and done what she actually loved doing. But she never liked me enough to solicit my advice.</p>

<p>Well, to make a long story short, she decided not to transfer because she found a group of friends that make good support systems. It's just enough. She isn't doing extracurriculars because she doesn't have time and can't do work fast enough. She also mentioned how she started using drugs (adderal, ritalin, and something like cocaine, though I don't know drugs and I think she has tried cocaine) to get her work done and deal with stress. </p>

<p>She should have been rejected. She'd probably be a heck of a lot happier today (scratch that- the funeral where we met up still would have happened).</p>

<p>Thanks, Marilee for being "humane" to my friend.</p>

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<p>Class action suit? On what grounds?</p>

<p>People forget that Marilee Jones was not the only person making decisions. Anyone reading Matt McGann's blogs would remember reading about the days when he staggered home with folders to read well into the night. I'm assuming, too, that there were some profs on the admissions committee as there are at many other colleges. There is no proof whatsoever that, had someone else been in charge, students who got rejected would have received a thick envelope instead. No proof at all.
Let's remember that there is a finite number of admission spots at MIT. Let's not cast aspersion, even indirectly, on the qualifications of students who were admitted into MIT by a committee headed by Marilee Jones and not consisting solely of Marilee Jones.</p>

<p>I also agree with the rest of Ben Golub's post.</p>

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<p>This is surely the irony of ironies. As Chedva wrote early in this thread, should be a sticky for all the kids who ask, "Is it ok to lie in my application?" I am the broken record that has written many times about how your application stays on file forever, and that even if you get accepted to the school any lies on your application can come back and bite you while you are at the school, or even 10 years later if you are up for a big government job that requires an FBI background check. I never suggested that lies on a resume could come back to bite you 28 years later!</p>

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<p>Wendy Mouse:</p>

<p>Oh come! No one forced your friend to attend MIT! Don't blame it on Marilee Jones that she did not know herself well enough to imagine herself at Brown. Even for a an 18 year old, there's something called free will.</p>

<p>At every top and not-so-top college, there are students who wonder whether they were admitted by mistake. It's called impostor syndrome, the feeling that one does not deserve to be where one is and the fear that one will not leave up to expectations. At a place like MIT, it's rampant. The chant that Marilee does not make mistakes is not a celebration of Marilee. It is a chant sung by admitted students that no mistake was made in their case and that, yes, they will be able to make it at MIT.</p>

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<p>Yes, a lawsuit is pretty ridiculous.</p>

<p>marite, the admissions director, however, probably does set the overall tone for all of the readers - what qualities are emphasized, which are not, etc.. That role is much more important than simply rubber stamping the accepted students.</p>

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<p>What I find disheartening on this thread is the number of people who discount the concept of integrity. I do think that there are people who, in order to live in their own skin comfortably, do not make choices like this one. I think that there are also people who may at some point choose to deceive, but then on their own choose to own up and take the consequences, whatever they may be. Jones could've ended this at any time in the last 28 years if she was willing to do that. </p>

<p>I think if we start assuming that "no one is perfect" means that integrity is an illusory value, then we have lost some of the gains that make us better people.</p>

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<p>She had big influence in the committee.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
People forget that Marilee Jones was not the only person making decisions. Anyone reading Matt McGann's blogs would remember reading about the days when he staggered home with folders to read well into the night. I'm assuming, too, that there were some profs on the admissions committee as there are at many other colleges. There is no proof whatsoever that, had someone else been in charge, students who got rejected would have received a thick envelope instead. No proof at all.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You know, I see a lot of students getting into Caltech and getting rejected from MIT and vice-versa. This is why I have a problem with your quote. Because I think if people really were treated fairly (and Marilee didn't get her way), a lot of people rejected would have been accepted and vice-versa.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Oh come! No one forced your friend to attend MIT! Don't blame it on Marilee Jones that she did not know herself well enough to imagine herself at Brown. Even for a an 18 year old, there's something called free will.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The fact she got in is Marilee's fault. Why should a person like that be able to get in just because they present themselves well on paper?</p>

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<p>Forgive me if this has been discussed--I have not read the entire thread. But I just don't understand how this kind of thing happens. And it does happen fairly often---perhaps this is higher profile than most, but it certainly happens. </p>

<p>WHY weren't her credentials checked before she was hired? If applicants knew resumes were going to be verified, fewer people would make up degrees out of thin air!!</p>

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<p>I have posted this so many times I bore myself! </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=3544932&postcount=6%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=3544932&postcount=6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=3160199&postcount=3%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=3160199&postcount=3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=2612279&postcount=9%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=2612279&postcount=9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Panhandlegal...the quick answer was that her original job was as an admin assistant. She moved up the ranks, and never corrected the background info.</p>

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<p>At the least, though, they should check the validity of degrees. No matter how low the occupation.</p>

<p>I doubt that they do degree searches for even people who apply for more senior positions, to be honest with you. I think this needs to be a lesson for MIT and they should do a degree check on every single one of their faculty members.</p>

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<p>So why did she need to lie to get an administrative assistant job then? I always thought she was a great show-woman- guess she faked everyone out!</p>

<p>And are MIT admissions really humane-just because she said they are-I think not!</p>

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<p>Phuriku:
Nonsense. People get accepted at Harvard and rejected at Princeton. There is no earthly reason why people should be accepted at both MIT and Caltech.</p>

<p>Why do you assume that the young woman's admission was Marilee Jones' fault? Why is there a committee if all decisions have to be made by her and her alone?
Yes, I'm sure she set the tone, defined the criteria, etc... but that does not mean that she personally chose and vetted every last application. If the young woman was admitted because she's a double legacy, there must be a policy from higher up than the admissions office about how to treat double legacies.</p>

<p>But let's not blame the young woman's recourse to drugs on Jones. She could have gone to Brown (what a come down from MIT! How could she possibly live that down!!); she could also have transferred.</p>