<p>emerald kitty...exactly my thoughts.</p>
<p>This leaves me sad. Just sad.</p>
<p>Sad for her mistake almost 30 yrs. ago, sad at her professional and personal loss, sad that she lived with this for 28 yrs., sad for her daughter who will have to deal with this. Sad for students who now wonder if being themselves is really good enough. Just sad.</p>
<p>Hazmat,
I had the same thought. Maybe her railing against the system and telling parents to chill was in part because of her own feeling of inadequacy (knowing she was "a fake"). She spoke at our school last year and was, indeed, very nice and supportive -- and yet I disagreed with a lot of what she said especially about us parents putting too much emphasis on college admissions.</p>
<p>My two cents: her advocating for admissions controls evidently rubbed someone the wrong way...sounds like she was taken down.</p>
<p>From the Boston Globe article, emphasis mine:
[quote]
School officials reviewed her qualifications last week when Daniel E. Hastings, dean for undergraduate education, received a phone call from a person who questioned her credentials. The school did not say who placed the call.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Wow. Just, wow.</p>
<p>As soon as I read the press release my first thought was to log on to cc and see how other parents are responding to this. </p>
<p>Many of you are expressing sadness and I do feel that, but I also feel anger. Jones was asking 17 and 18 year old students to do what she herself did not do -- represent herself honestly. She sat in judgment on students and publicly campaigned for admissions reform when what she needed to do was first to judge herself honestly and then to clean her own house. Perhaps some of you will feel that I am being overly harsh, but Jones has done a great disservice to the integrity of the admissions process.</p>
<p>I'm not sure that if you deliberately lie about something as significant as a college degree that it can be considered a "mistake".</p>
<p>My point was that she got away with a huge lie for many years. For some college students, the risk of getting caught might seem slim, so why not chance it? </p>
<p>She did.</p>
<p>Sad for her mistake almost 30 years ago? Huh? She misrepresented herself on a daily basis since she was hired (with the resume that had incorrect information) in 1998 (and even before that). It's a sad thing for her, but she's as much of a hypocrite as Ted Haggard. If anything, this should send a strong message to young people that lying and misrepresenting yourself is never acceptable and the consequences can be very harsh.</p>
<p>One article said that she had falsely claimed to have degrees from Albany Medical College, Union, and Rensselaer. Does she have any legitimate college degrees?</p>
<p>This is really rough for the people who have been working in the MIT admission office.</p>
<p>
[quote]
According to the Boston Globe, she had no degrees from the schools where she stated she had earned degrees.
[/quote]
No degrees at all from these institutions? Some dirtly little secret. Must have been eating her alive. How do you spend 28 years at MIT and no one finds out until now?</p>
<p>From an article from the Harvard</a> Crimson today:
[quote]
It was not immediately clear how Jones had represented her degrees to the school, and MIT did not elaborate.
[/quote]
And yes, both staff members in the admissions office and students and applicants are having a very rough time today.</p>
<p>Maybe she bought a hand gun?</p>
<p>It's a sad event but MIT will be better for it. I've been to Marilee's speech at our local high school. While her philosophy on college admissions sounded idealistic, implementation of it would not be feasible simply because of supply and demand - if MIT were to enforce its meritocracy policy. </p>
<p>As a parent of Class 2011, I also admit that I am a bit upset at Marilee for her misrepresentation of academic credentials. I think she still owes us a further explanation (Please, not another book. - hazmat begged), her privacy notwithstanding. Our children have lost yet another ounce of innocence and I sure hope they will learn something from this dark lesson.</p>
<p>I am actually looking forward to a new era for MIT Admissions.</p>
<p>Here is an article from the Boston Globe (2004).</p>
<p>According to this: "Jones, 52, who earned bachelor's and master's degrees in biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, came to MIT in 1978. She thought she would get a lab job, but jumped at the chance to help the admissions office attract more female applicants. When she began, women were 17 or 19 percent of the student population; in this year's freshman class, they make up 45 percent. She became dean in 1998."</p>
<p>That was my first thought as well--I wonder if she has any credentials, period!</p>
<p>I definitely feel conflicted about this. I'm not really personally rankled, since I didn't apply and didn't consider applying to MIT, but I do have to say that I find it quite disgusting that someone would lie about their credentials for basically their entire professional career. I understand--intellectually, anyway--how it might be hard to 'fess up after many years of lying, but...that doesn't make the lying okay!!!</p>
<p>I have been impressed by many of the things she has said/written, but I can't help but think (much) less of Jones as a person after this controversy.</p>
<p>I am sad for her as a human being: to live 28 yrs. of her life hiding a secret and then the rest of her life with the consequences. Yes, I am sad.</p>
<p>Was it right. No.</p>
<p>Where is Freud when you need him?</p>
<p>
[quote]
**I think she still owes us a further explanation
[/quote]
**
What a story. Can you say O.P.R.A.H.????</p>
<p>It's not just that she lied about her credentials- it's that she spoke out against high schoolers doing the exact same thing!</p>
<p>At the Parents talk at CPW, she mentioned the many very angry phones calls they received since the decisions came out in March. Sounds like she was investigated by some of the very same meddling parents she's tried to calm down in recent years.</p>