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‘Rhodes Scholar’ claimed she grew up poor and abused — then her story started to unravel
New York Post ^ | January 11, 2022 | Jerry Oppenheimer and Isabel Vincent

Posted on 01/11/2022 7:28:19 PM PST by karpov

In November 2020, when University of Pennsylvania graduate student Mackenzie Fierceton won the prestigious and highly competitive Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford — one of just 32 scholars selected from a pool of 2,300 applicants — she was praised by the Ivy League school’s president in a newsletter.

“Mackenzie is so deserving of this prestigious opportunity,” declared President Amy Gutmann of the 23-year-old from suburban St. Louis. “As a first-generation [to go to college] low-income student and a former foster youth, Mackenzie is passionate about championing young people [and] dedicating herself to a life of public service.”

But a few months later, Fierceton had lost her prestigious scholarship and was fighting against accusations that she had been “blatantly dishonest” about her childhood in her Penn and Rhodes applications.

Now, the investigation into her story is being revealed by the Chronicle of High Education — including the Rhodes committee’s findings that Fierceton “created and repeatedly shared false narratives about herself,” using these “misrepresentations” to “serve her interests as an applicant for competitive programs.”

The case also exposes the murky underbelly of elite schools like Penn and their quest to “show that they’re transforming society rather than laundering its inequalities” by accepting “remarkable” applicants with truly tragic backgrounds, according to the Chronicle report.

Multiple college consultants told The Post that the college application process now features more questions about overcoming obstacles. The 2021-2022 essay prompts from Common App, the organization that oversees undergrad applications for more than 900 schools, include “Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure.”

“There are a lot of pressures out there for applications right now,” Marco Santini, a New York-based college education consultant, told The Post.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: chat; college; collegeadmissions; fakeittillumakeit; upenn
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To: frogjerk

“... college education consultant..”

Who do you call when you need professional lies for your application?


21 posted on 01/11/2022 7:45:49 PM PST by RetiredTexasVet (When Satan craps another demon possessed Progressive is born.)
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To: karpov

As Rush said repeatedly, liberals value people by what happens to them, and not by what they do to overcome those things. Like most modern prestige schools U-Penn and Oxford have two classes of students, underprivileged students to make the schools look like they care, and students who pay for the underprivileged students. My guess is that someone at these schools discovered she was white.


22 posted on 01/11/2022 7:46:15 PM PST by nagant
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To: karpov
Having the first name Mackenzie is indeed a burden, but it's usually one the privileged inflict on their children ...

"Fierceton" is an obviously made-up name that she assumed in college, perhaps to covet her tracks.

23 posted on 01/11/2022 7:48:13 PM PST by x
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To: karpov

The place is not particularly impressed with a measurable percentage of the Rhodes Scholars. The term used is, “Rhodents”.


24 posted on 01/11/2022 7:50:01 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: karpov

Where there is no objective truth, why is she in the wrong? It is her truth.

Excuse me while I go vomit.


25 posted on 01/11/2022 7:50:08 PM PST by sitetest (Professional patient. No longer mostly dead. Again. It's getting to be a habit.)
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To: frank ballenger

Heard him on a talk show years back. Vin Skelsa I believe. He said when his last term was up, they offered him a promotion to Major to stay in.

He said “No thanks. I’m gonna give this singer/songwriter gig a chance”.

6 months later his unit was one of the first sent to Vietnam.


26 posted on 01/11/2022 7:51:10 PM PST by HYPOCRACY (This is the dystopian future we've been waiting for!)
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Comment #27 Removed by Moderator

To: robowombat

Somebody informed on her. She could have been different color and if somebody informed on her it would get her into trouble. But look, exceptionally obese people usually aren’t upper middle class anyway. And not everything is about race.


28 posted on 01/11/2022 8:02:07 PM PST by x
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To: karpov
Fierceton seems to have few regrets about her essays. As she told the Chronicle: “Where I’ve landed is that I have a right to write about my experiences as I experienced them. Period.”

Gotta give the girl credit. She has nailed the zeitgeist.

29 posted on 01/11/2022 8:03:41 PM PST by edwinland
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To: drSteve78

Nope, she has a future with the Demoncrats in politic. She would be perfect assistant for Sleepy Joe’s assistant or Hilary.


30 posted on 01/11/2022 8:06:10 PM PST by Patriot Babe
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To: karpov

Rachael Dolezal feels her pain!


31 posted on 01/11/2022 8:10:36 PM PST by lee martell
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To: karpov

“I was born a poor black boy.” - Navan Johnson


32 posted on 01/11/2022 8:11:08 PM PST by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: karpov
Surprise:


33 posted on 01/11/2022 8:11:59 PM PST by Albion Wilde (If science can’t be questioned, it’s not science anymore, it’s propaganda. --Aaron Rodgers)
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To: karpov

Adversity, diversity, perversity, .....sity


34 posted on 01/11/2022 8:14:47 PM PST by beethovenfan (Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin)
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To: drSteve78

Or a Senator.

See: Elizabeth Warren


35 posted on 01/11/2022 8:17:52 PM PST by Cowgirl of Justice
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To: frank ballenger

Wow, I had NO IDEA about Kristofferson’s background and accomplishments. That is truly incredible. I never cared much for his songs, but I’ll look at him completely differently now.


36 posted on 01/11/2022 8:22:57 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (81 million votes...and NOT ONE "Build Back Better" hat)
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To: karpov

Sounds like Obama. Of course, he hides his true self with sealed documents.


37 posted on 01/11/2022 8:23:03 PM PST by elpadre ( ying them.)
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To: JennysCool

That has always been the case.


38 posted on 01/11/2022 8:25:19 PM PST by HIDEK6 (God bless Donald Trump. )
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To: karpov
Steve Martin was WAY ahead of his time...


39 posted on 01/11/2022 8:26:04 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (81 million votes...and NOT ONE "Build Back Better" hat)
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To: karpov

“As a first-generation [to go to college] low-income student and a former foster youth, Mackenzie is passionate about championing young people...”

No girl with a first name “MacKenzie” comes from a poor family.

Now if her first name was. LaKanisha, then her story would be more believable.


40 posted on 01/11/2022 8:26:12 PM PST by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how they control you. )
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