How An Ivy League School Turned Against A Student

OP doesn't know how to clear cookies? MEH!

Doesn't that mean I get signed out of all websites r1?

No thank you.

No, you can clear cookies for just that site through your browser or you can get an extension like Forget Me Not where you can clear cookies for whatever page you're on.

Thanks r3!

Cliff Notes: Mackenzie is a fraud. A clever person and a lying and manipulating grifter, to spectacular success, of affirmative action considerations and culture in higher education.

The article is very supportive of her but Mackenzie seems like a sociopath. . Always lying to gain an advantage even when it isn't completely necessary. I'm sure there will be more incidents in her future.

r5 "This is the whole of the story and we might have left it at that had there not been profit and pleasure in the telling; and although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man's life, detail is always welcome."

In many a library you can get access to New Yorker magazine through their digital collections, usually on Overdrive. All it takes is a library card and a password and you go in look it up and check it out.

I used the Wayback Machine to gain access to the full text. (Not sure why I didn't think of that before.)

Thanks everyone!

Mackenzie was mostly making shit up, and many people believed her because she's pretty. She was jealous of her mother and the boyfriend, it's obvious.

This is really well-written

Of course Mackenzie was telling the truth, but this is a story of why it’s wrong to put students in categories so that students in some categories get more points than others. Everyone should be treated the same and not get any benefit from being in a favored category.

Mackenzie was telling the truth about what? She LIED and LIED and LIED.

This story is really fascinating.

I'm not sure where exactly the truth lies, but Mackenzie does seem a bit opportunistic.

Mackenzie Philips? I would take anything she has to say with a grain of salt.

Mackenzie is the Christine Crawford of her generation.

It's hard to know what to think after reading the piece. I think I'm going to read the Chronicle's coverage now ... I feel it will be a touch less sympathetic to Fierceton.

The Daily Fail is ALL over this story

From The Chronicle:

[quote]Writing about personal trauma in your college application is common enough that there are guides on how to do it. In an op-ed published last year by The New York Times, a high-school senior confessed to mixed emotions about the pressure to “sell your pain” in your essay, as if suffering was somehow a prerequisite. While admissions officers at highly selective institutions will insist that it’s not necessary to highlight the darkest aspects of your upbringing, the need to set yourself apart is real. In addition, those elite colleges, sensitive to the charge that they cater to the wealthy and well-connected, are eager to show that they’re transforming society rather than laundering its inequalities. They are always on the lookout for remarkable kids from less-fortunate circumstances.

In the 50s there was this show called.Queen For A Day. Women competed by telling stories about their horrible lives. the woman with the saddest story won a washing machine. This seems similiar to how poor/minority people get into college today.

I was surprised to see Penn and not Cornell. Usually, “an Ivy League school” means Cornell.

From The Chronicle's coverage:

[quote]The university followed with an investigation of its own. In August, Penn’s Office of Student Conduct sent a 31-page report marked “confidential” to the university’s provost, Wendell Pritchett, detailing its findings. The document is a more thorough examination of Fierceton’s background than the Rhodes report. Investigators interviewed people connected to her abuse case and pored over her applications to the university, Rhodes, and to scholarship programs, along with emails to administrators, legal records, and texts sent by Fierceton to the Inquirer reporter who wrote about her scholarship. The nearly 15,000-word report examines those sources line by line. For instance, Fierceton wrote in her undergraduate application that by the time she was 6 years old she knew “all of the police officers in my county by first name” as a result, presumably, of problems at her home. Investigators did confirm that Fierceton’s family had been visited by child-welfare officials when she was young. As for whether she knew all of the officers in the county by name, Fierceton granted that was a rhetorical flourish meant to emphasize her dire circumstances. She told the student-conduct office that she was “extremely fearful of her biological family” and that this “led her to be very focused on conveying the gravity of the situation.”

Also:

[quote]A fter Fierceton was hospitalized, her mother, Carrie Morrison, was arrested and charged with two counts of felony child abuse or neglect and one count of misdemeanor assault. Those charges were later dropped and her record was expunged. The assistant prosecuting attorney handling the case, Michael Hayes, says he felt ethically obligated to drop the charges. “My review of all of the available evidence did little to assuage certain doubts I had about the case,” Hayes wrote in a recent email. “The more I learned, the less certain I became about what really happened.” In 2019, Morrison successfully petitioned a St. Louis circuit court to have her name kept off the state’s child-abuse registry. The judge, Kristine Allen Kerr, in a nine-page opinion, pointed to gaps in Fierceton’s memory and to other circumstances, like the lack of injuries to her back from the stairs incident. She wrote that Fierceton’s 22 days in the hospital went “well beyond what would be expected for treatment of the bruising she presented with.” Kerr also cited Fierceton’s “reporting of different facts in her college essay.” In her summary, the judge wrote that while it was possible that Morrison had caused her daughter’s injuries, “the court cannot make that finding by a preponderance of the evidence.”

[quote]Cliff Notes:

Oh, dear.

[quote]she submitted a petition with the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, changing her name to Mackenzie Fierceton.

Fierceton? That caused a Liz Lemon style eye roll

Something about the whole thing just doesn't sit right with me.

The lies and masquerading? It's a consistent theme in American culture. You are who you invent yourself to be. Trump isn't a savvy billionaire businessman. Elizabeth Holmes is not a tech business wunderkind.

She a bitch!

Of course it’s true. Why else would the mom stalk her and send the tip-off to Penn in the first place?

This not something a loving mother does.

r29 1) do we know the mother sent the tip-off? I thought it came from multiple sources, including an old high school classmate. 2) assuming for the sake of argument that abuse allegations were not true, then I could see the mother desperate to make contact.

A couple of thoughts about this report. First off, Chesterfield is hardly "a wealthy suburb" of St. Louis. It's big, and those who own large tracts of land indubitably are rich, but to call the whole town wealthy is a stretch. Clayton, Ladue, Huntleigh, Town and Country -- serious money lives in one of these towns.

But even more to the point, Whitfield is not one of "the most exclusive prep schools in St. Louis". Burroughs and Country Day are.

So the exaggeration and stretching of facts extends to the authors of this story.

Who can you believe anymore?

Penn comes off really badly in this article.

[quote]But even more to the point, Whitfield is not one of "the most exclusive prep schools in St. Louis".

Maybe, but its tuition is still almost 30K/year.

There are facts in this story that suggest real culpability on the mother's part. Penn discovered that child welfare representatives actually had been sent to the house when Mackenzie was a child, and friends and neighbors had noticed repeated injuries. The mother's boyfriend was extremely shady. It's entirely possible to be an abuse victim and not be a great person. Penn itself DOES come off very badly, like another manipulator. And, weirdly enough, no one seems to doubt Mackenzie's academic ability. That does not seem to have ever been relevant to anyone.

You're twisting the story R33 to suit an agenda.

One interesting detail: in the hospital, she was given a feeding tube -- according to her account, because of the degree of her physical trauma. However, according to the Chronicle: "She was given a feeding tube, but her eating difficulties were listed as 'behavioral.'"

I wonder what "behavioral" means here.

Some of you don't have good spidy senses to identify a grifting pathological liar or borderline case or sociopath.

but some of her peers smelled a RAT.

PENN decided several years ago to be the wokest of ivy, outwoking even Brown. PENN would take all the hardscrabble to success stories, the 1st gen to college who were overcoming great hardships of class, ethnicity, gender identity, blah de be blah blah - to make it to the Ivy League.

There's a tranny swimmer taking advantage of this PENN policy right now. Penn is determined to "make it right" - correct the hegemony of rich cis genders - so who cares about all the bio women on the team - THEY didn't have it so hard in life - probably nice middle class or rich white girls - but the tranny overcame the GREAT STRUGGLE to declare himself another gender. "She" must be a hero and win ALL the prizes.

Same with this lying witch. A RHODES SCHOLAR. What's the big deal about a "rhetorical flourish" or two in the backstory of overcoming great struggle.

Anorexic R35

The real scandal is that there is still a scholarship named after Cecil Rhodes.

The judge who cleared the mother of wrongdoing (well, removed her name from the state database) wrote that Fierceton’s 22 days in the hospital went “well beyond what would be expected for treatment of the bruising she presented with.” I wonder if she was treated in a psych unit? Would that be public, or are records like that sealed since she was a minor?

r40 was meant as a reply to r38

This story reminded me of the recent study that found posing as a "virtuous victim" is associated with the "dark triad" of personality traits.

From the abstract:

[quote]We show that individuals with Dark Triad traits—Machiavellianism, Narcissism, Psychopathy—more frequently signal virtuous victimhood, controlling for demographic and socioeconomic variables that are commonly associated with victimization in Western societies....[W]e show that a specific dimension of Machiavellianism—amoral manipulation—and a form of narcissism that reflects a person’s belief in their superior prosociality predict more frequent virtuous victim signaling."

My take is that she’s basically telling the truth. The mother seems to be the shady one here. Who laughs off her boyfriend climbing on top of her 15-year-old daughter?

I definitely don't think we know the whole story, especially what led Penn to launch their investigation. And somehow I think what we don't know casts Fierceton is a less favorable light.

Why would that entitle her to a scholarship, r43?

She didn’t get the scholarship for being abused. She got it for her academic achievements. She then lost it for being dishonest about her background. If she was not dishonest, she should not have lost it.

Best case - pathological liar. Worst case - borderline, sociopath. Such people should not be encouraged and rewarded by receiving society's great awards and certifications. Such as being a Rhodes Scholar. Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes. National awards and medals and societies. Creative awards.

These people will use such credentials to hurt others.

I think she might have a touch of sociopathy.

What a mess. This is what happens when you don’t finish what you start.

Penn still has their original story about her Rhodes scholarship up:

[quote]As a former foster youth, and queer first-generation low-income student, Fierceton ...

If I were first gen in the traditional sense of the word -- if neither of my parents had attained education beyond high school -- I would be annoyed that she claimed to be first gen.

Yes, *technically* she was first gen, but she also knew exactly what she was doing when she checked the box. In her heart, she knew she had incredible advantages that most first gen students do not.

But really, the problem lies with Penn, and the whole higher ed machine that so fetishizes first gen students.

If Fierceton announces they is a man now perhaps they can have every honor and award back and be a hero again?

Here is a good comment from Reddit:

[quote]But here’s the thing - knowingly exaggerated/highly misleading = not the truth. I’m genuinely perplexed by people’s willingness to overlook not just one omission or distortion but a pattern in essay after essay, application after application as eh, but Penn is terrible. Of course Penn is terrible and of course the fetishizing of victims for college/scholarships is bad. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that she has misrepresented ie lied for her own benefit. And you can pursue a degree on social work and help others and be liked by lots of people and still have some seriously problematic behaviors. She wanted people to believe that she ‘grew up in foster care’ and ‘didn’t own a coat’ while she looked longingly at other kids vacations and that her friends in foster care were dead, in jail, in a psych ward etc and that there was a ‘crash cart’ by her bed in case ‘she stopped breathing again’ and that her body was ‘in a brace’, that she ‘received harassing packages’ which campus police were aware of, that she ‘co-founded a non profit’ and ‘lived in 7 places in 10 months’ and ‘was kicked out of foster care when she turned 18’ and ‘would’ve traded it all to be adopted’. That is not her story. Her story is not undeserving of support. But it’s also not the one she’s been telling over and over in order for a variety of tangible and intangible benefits.

Penn? Amateur!

She certainly manipulated a ton of teachers and professors. That’s what a stuck out most to me. How many adults were willing to pay for her and let her stay with them etc.

I’ll read this, but first I want to share this with you guys. It gets around most paywalls.

Thanks r56!

I stopped reading at the first use of the word "Mackenzie."

lol - keep reading R58. It's a strange story.

The thing that made me believe she's full of shit was that so many review boards found that she misrepresented her story based on her medical records and court records. The Penn social work school disciplinary board did. The Rhodes board of review did. It seems like whenever Mackenzie wasn't able to get in and manipulate the adults in person - things didn't go her way. That seemed like a red flag.

Also, her supporters are acting like her mother was some CEO billionaire who used her billions to manipulate the child welfare system in St. Louis. In reality, she's a breast cancer doctor. Yes - wealthy, but not to the extent that she seemingly could make the whole system work for her.

Whatever Mackenzie's tactics were, however, she proved quite effective. Seems like she mostly worked her charms on fraus and lesbians though. Didn't see a ton of male professors defending her.

Cluster B Hall of Fame. Scary what she could have done with her credentials. They do walk among us, in every field. Creepy.

I'm sure this makes me seem like an utterly heartless bitch, but one thing that raised a red flag for me RE the abuse allegations was her diary. That detail seems just a little too on the nose.

I think she also benefits from the fact it's taboo to question or doubt people who claim they've been victims of childhood abuse. (I'm not saying that I think they should be questioned, but she knows that in today's climate, they can't be.)

One more red flag. In my experience, most victims of abuse tend to downplay the abuse, even after they're out of the situation. (For me, it involves an incredible level of shame.) She seems to have done the opposite. Now, again, it doesn't prove anything. Just a personal observation.

YES, Laura Palmer. They don’t want people to know. Also, people who have real diseases want to appear as normal as possible.

Exactly r62

Lol Penn has really lowered its standards in recent years.

I went to Penn and can’t imagine having those kinds of relationships with the faculty where you are living with them over breaks and they are paying for you to go to Oxford…. It’s quite a large school, I was in a small department and even still… very strange.

Granted I fucked a visiting professor one semester lol, but he wasn’t tenured faculty and we did it after the semester ended.

As I get older now, I can see how college kids could pretty easily manipulate adults. Everyone always talks about the reverse but 19 year olds often know just what to say to get something out of a 45 year old.

Yes .... it's odd, r65.

Grifter!

Mom thinks it's funny her gun-toting boyfriend "confused" her and her 15 year old daughter and felt her daughter up? Something stinks here and it's not Mackenzie's story.

[quote]When concerns were initially raised about her first-generation status, Mackenzie had e-mailed the associate director of admissions and recruitment at Penn’s social-work school to ask how former foster youth should answer the question. “I personally believe the education level (or/and financial status) of the biological parents would be irrelevant,” the associate director responded. “The youth should select into the option that provides them access to the most funding—which would be to indicate that they are a first-generation college student.”

That email, plus the revelation of Mackenzie's role in the wrongful death suit should have ended this shakedown immediately. This is bullshit.

Rhodes had no dog in the wrongful death suit , r68

That doesn't explain Penn's actions, R69.

R9 That article is almost 12,000 words.

TL/dr.

Not quite the Ivy League candidate, are you R71?

[quote] 12,000 words

Every US journo thinks they're Ernest Hemingway and they're obviously paid per thousand words.

[quote] but 19 year olds often know just what to say to get something out of a 45 year old

Usually that's only true when the 45 year old wants to fuck the 19 year old. And the 19 year old isn't saying anything particularly manipulative, it's just that the 45 year old will pretend to believe anything to get that sex.

[quote] Usually that's only true when the 45 year old wants to fuck the 19 year old.

Ew.

My theory is that the mother was neglectful, with her scuuuzzy boyfriend (did you see his pic?) and Mackenzie was embellishing lies to get attention and payback.

One thing is for sure, she is very smart girl, she covered her tracks well. The end of the article was particularly enlightening, the one where she says she "replaces" her memories with the lies she was told to repeat... In other words, if anyone ever catches her in a lie about her abusive past, she can always say this is what she was told to say but not what actually happened. Very canny and manipulative.

Um, HELLO, am I still on Datalounge? Because there have been 77 replies and no mention of this???

"She had become estranged from her father, a former soap-opera actor..."

Datalounge detectives, do your thing!

^ LOL!!!!!

Marry me r78!

I'm like a year behind, but I just read this article.

Look, I try to temper my credulity when I read about accusations like this, and while nothing can be proved, I see no reason, based on this article, to doubt Mackenzie's story to enough of a degree to threaten her educational credentials. The mother might have been found not guilty, but being found not guilty is not the same as being found innocent, a distinction which appears to be lost on an Ivy League institution, apparently. By the mother's OWN admission, her response to her boyfriend molesting her daughter was "Lol, I'm flattered he thought it was me." What. Everyone in this topic says that Mackenize's statements sent up red flags for them, but for me the mother's statements sent up major red flags as well. How do you even defend that response?

The real world isn't a Lifetime TV movie; if she was some "Dark Triad" type there is an affect to that that people would pick up on, and any investigative dive into her life, even a sympathetic one, should be able to find at least one person that even partially clocked her.

Mackenzie Fierceton is my new preferred internet pseudonym.

sounds like a BPD munchie to me

The only thing she says that rings true is, if you criticize an Ivy League school and it's a valid criticism that will lower its value, the school will come after you. I saw it happen to a friend at the social work school at Columbia who called them out for federal grant fraud. Social work schools are pretty much a joke anyway (mostly a cash cow for universities with lots of adjunct faculty). The fact she went for an MSW makes sense if she is dark triad, too.

Penn strikes me as a school with absolutely no integrity. Maybe it's the fact that Tiffany Trump went there, Ivanka Trump . . . seems like a place you can easily buy admission. Plus they gave Amy Wax tenure- I am sure they regret it now but how the hell that happened in the first place is beyond me. They admitted this student, there is more than enough evidence that she is telling the truth (even if there is evidence on the other side) she earned her degree, enough. They are clearly trying to punish her for speaking out in the wrongful death lawsuit. Really, at Penn, with all of the Trumps who are graduates (and others) NO ONE ELSE has ever possibly lied but they chose not to pursue it to this degree. it's like they are trying to run an FBI investigation. Total waste of time.

They ended up giving her the degree after a campus wide walk out and the New Yorker article.

Thanks to the thread being bumped, I finally read this story. Immediate reaction? Her mother is really fucked up. Every single thing she’s recorded as saying seems drastically “off.” A lot of Mackenzie’s apparently manipulative traits seemed to duplicate her mother’s.

I was just thinking about this story this morning.

Who the hell thinks that girl is attractive?

I must be missing something.

R78 Billy Terrell, former soap opera actor, would seem to be the answer.