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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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This girl is a fraud, but admitting students based on how much "adversity" they faced encourages such fraud.
1 posted on 01/11/2022 7:28:19 PM PST by karpov
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To: karpov

“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. “

I’ve never understood why Yale doesn’t just go fix New Haven.

It’s RIGHT next doo0r.


2 posted on 01/11/2022 7:31:31 PM PST by Paladin2 (🍊 )
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To: karpov

So, she may have a future as a fiction writer.


3 posted on 01/11/2022 7:31:39 PM PST by drSteve78 (Je suis Deplorable. STILL)
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To: karpov
“There are a lot of pressures out there for applications right now,” Marco Santini, a New York-based college education consultant, told The Post.

Justification for lying right there...

4 posted on 01/11/2022 7:32:00 PM PST by frogjerk (I will not do business with fascists)
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To: karpov

Yes. Since when are scholarships for academic excellence doled out based on sob stories?

Oh. I forgot. These are Leftists we’re dealing with here.


5 posted on 01/11/2022 7:32:52 PM PST by JennysCool ("It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled." - Mark Twain)
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To: karpov

True story is the singer and songwriter Kris Kristofferson was a Rhodes Scholar who studied at Oxford University’s Merton College, earning a master’s degree in English literature. He went on to serve as a captain in the U.S. Army, where he became a helicopter pilot, in addition to having completed U.S. Army Ranger School.
Source:americanrhodes.org

Among his songwriting credits are the songs “Me and Bobby McGee”, “For the Good Times”, “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”, and “Help Me Make It Through the Night”, all of which were hits for other artists. Wikipedia


6 posted on 01/11/2022 7:32:54 PM PST by frank ballenger (You have summoned up a thundercloud. You're gonna hear from me. Anthem by Leonard Cohen)
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To: Paladin2

I’ve never understood why Yale doesn’t just go fix New Haven.

Literally surrounded. And the area does a very good imitation of a ghetto world. Even the ivy on the walls recoils.


7 posted on 01/11/2022 7:33:40 PM PST by drSteve78 (Je suis Deplorable. STILL)
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To: frank ballenger

I liked him as the bad guy in the Steven Seagal movie Fire Down Below.


8 posted on 01/11/2022 7:35:51 PM PST by EvilCapitalist (Merry Christmas Illhan!)
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To: karpov
There is money in making people feel sorry for you.

Professional beggars have known this for millennium which is why they used to buy or rent handicapped children to serve as props.

9 posted on 01/11/2022 7:36:48 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (add a dab of lavender in milk, leave town with an orange and pretend you're laughing with it)
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To: karpov

You all don’t understand. She was simply telling Her Truth as she experienced it. Falling back on “facts” is a sign of patriarchal white supremacist hegemony.


10 posted on 01/11/2022 7:38:28 PM PST by hinckley buzzard ( Resist the narrative.)
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To: karpov

Elizabeth Warren got away with it.


11 posted on 01/11/2022 7:39:57 PM PST by TornadoAlley3 ( I'm Proud To Be An Okie From Muskogee)
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To: karpov

I bet her mother ratted her out.


12 posted on 01/11/2022 7:40:13 PM PST by moovova
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To: karpov

Yes, she is.

A fraud to the point of changing her last name.


13 posted on 01/11/2022 7:40:16 PM PST by sauropod (Resident Bidet. A confused old man at the wrong bus stop.)
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To: karpov

Imagine another Ivy taking restorative justice against a former professor who conspired to advance professionally by claiming a victim heritage.


14 posted on 01/11/2022 7:40:18 PM PST by Sgt_Schultze (When your business model depends on slave labor, you're always going to need more slaves)
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To: karpov

Future pole dancer.


15 posted on 01/11/2022 7:41:27 PM PST by dynachrome ("I will not be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.")
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To: karpov

Any story about the Rhodes Scholarship is not what it seems.


16 posted on 01/11/2022 7:41:57 PM PST by reasonisfaith (What are the cosmological implications if the Resurrection of Christ is a true event in history?)
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To: frank ballenger

If I remember correctly, Kristofferson’s dad was a captain in the USN.


17 posted on 01/11/2022 7:42:06 PM PST by spel_grammer_an_punct_polise (Land is simply a place I visit until I can return to the sea.)
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To: karpov

What? She’s white and was offered a Rhodes Scholarship?


18 posted on 01/11/2022 7:42:31 PM PST by peggybac (My will is what I wanted. God's will is what I got.)
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To: karpov

It is common procedure for Massachusetts senators (Both Kerry and Warren), the CT Senator and so on. Creative writing.

Perhaps rather than sob stories, we need to be focusing on honesty since it is in such short supply.


19 posted on 01/11/2022 7:43:27 PM PST by alternatives? (The only reason to have an army is to defend your borders.)
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To: frank ballenger

How interesting! I never knew that, thanks! I had crush on him way back when


20 posted on 01/11/2022 7:45:42 PM PST by dkGba
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