MIT dean of admissions resigns after lying about her academic credentials

AlexMack · #1 04-27-2007, 12:48 PM

I wonder who busted her?

AchtungBaby80 · #2 04-27-2007, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by centaur532

I wonder who busted her?

No kidding. Especially after 28 years.

KSUViolet06 · #3 04-27-2007, 03:43 PM

When this story first broke, I thought about all the kids who get rejected from MIT every year. The woman who made the decision about whether they got in wasn't even a college grad!

alum · #4 04-27-2007, 03:56 PM

I work at a rinky-dink college with multiple campuses around the world. All staff and faculty have to resubmit resumes and transcripts every two years. I am shocked that MIT doesn't do this.

PeppyGPhiB · #5 04-27-2007, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

When this story first broke, I thought about all the kids who get rejected from MIT every year. The woman who made the decision about whether they got in wasn't even a college grad!

No kidding, wait til I tell my boyfriend! It was the one school he was rejected from.

mystikchick · #6 04-28-2007, 01:57 AM

i was really disappointed when i heard this - i read her famed essay (last year?) about how the college applications process is becoming an absurd hypercompetition that simply isn't healthy, and i admired her for having the guts to come out and say that. all the admissions office at my school can do is be 'misquoted' (yeah right) in the nyt about how part of the deal in raising tuition to sickeningly high levels (we outrank yale) is that it makes parents think 'oh they must be more selective.'

wonder what made her feel the need to add extra degrees.

mystikchick · #7 04-28-2007, 02:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

When this story first broke, I thought about all the kids who get rejected from MIT every year. The woman who made the decision about whether they got in wasn't even a college grad!

if MIT is anything like my school, admissions decisions are made in committee, so while she would have had a say in it, hers wouldn't have been the deciding vote. still, i think part of the embarrasment is that she's such a high-profile and well known admissions officer from MIT - i doubt this would have been such a huge deal had she not been so well known for that essay/her blog/etc

JonInKC · #8 04-28-2007, 04:38 AM

...and she would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids.

alum · #9 04-28-2007, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mystikchick

if MIT is anything like my school, admissions decisions are made in committee, so while she would have had a say in it, hers wouldn't have been the deciding vote. still, i think part of the embarrasment is that she's such a high-profile and well known admissions officer from MIT - i doubt this would have been such a huge deal had she not been so well known for that essay/her blog/etc

Saw this on http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...336353&page=32

Quote:

Quote:
Ms. Jones would have been the final reader on my son's application to MIT

I remembered an MIT blog post saying that Marilee Jones generally has a last read on the files of all admitted applicants. Here is the exact wording I found in an MIT blog entry written two years ago:

Quote:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt McGann, MIT admissions blogger
You might ask, so selection is over, why can't I have my decision? What happens now? Well, as you've read, there is randomness built into our admissions process, from the reading to the selection subcommittees. The final step ensures consistency and fairness: all of the decisions are reviewed by a small team lead by Dean Marilee Jones. The vast majority of decisions from the selection room will be upheld; some decisions will be changed (one way or the other) if they seem inconsistent with the process. This is a good thing for you, one more way that we make sure there are no "mistakes," and that everything is appropriately considered.

http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/...8_beyond.shtml

On another blog entry of Matt's, I saw this post by Ben Jones which references a CC post.

Quote:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Jones
First a senior staff person will do a quick read to make sure there aren't a bunch of D's or combined 400 on the SAT. This takes about 10 minutes tops. Any application that has even a remote chance of making it through selection committee will make it past this stage. This is just to make sure we're not wasting time doing full reads on people who aren't competitive (and by that I mean *really* not competitive).

After than, 2 readers will read everything in your folder (yes, everything) and write individual summaries. Figure 25-45 minutes per reader, depending on the speed and experience of the reader and the size of the app.

Then selection committee, where different groups (each generally comprised of 2-3 admissions officers and sometimes a faculty member) will discuss the app for ~10 minutes each, guided by the two summaries (but able to access anything in the folder they want). If it's a clear admit, sometimes the group can admit, but generally an admitted app is seen by at least 2 groups and usually more like 3, even 4.

Then Marilee (Dean of Admissions) will personally review each and every admit (I don't know how long, prob 5-10 minutes) before approving the final decision.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...84&postcount=1

(This is the stickied FAQ thread in the MIT Forum.)

Bottom line: Marilee Jones has signed off on every admission decision at MIT for several years. All of which makes the recent revelations dismaying to the colleagues who trusted her and to the students who sought admission at MIT. MIT is blessed with a great group of applicants, and no one should feel bad about being admitted after coming forward and submitting an application--there was plenty of competition to get in. But, yeah, I feel for everyone connected with this process, and I wish MIT well in improving the leadership of the fine staff it already has in its admission office.