> On Apr 26, 9:45 pm, Chen europe.com> wrote:
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>> Dean at M.I.T. Resigns Ending a 28-Year Lie

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>> By TAMAR LEWIN
>> Published: April 27, 2007
>> Marilee Jones, the dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute
>> of Technology, became well known for urging stressed-out students
>> competing for elite colleges to calm down and stop trying to be
>> perfect. Yesterday she admitted that she had fabricated her own
>> educational credentials, and resigned after nearly three decades at
>> M.I.T. Officials of the institute said she did not have even an
>> undergraduate degree.

>

>> "I misrepresented my academic degrees when I first applied to M.I.T.
>> 28 years ago and did not have the courage to correct my résumé when I
>> applied for my current job or at any time since," Ms. Jones said in a
>> statement posted on the institute's Web site. "I am deeply sorry for
>> this and for disappointing so many in the M.I.T. community and beyond
>> who supported me, believed in me, and who have given me extraordinary
>> opportunities."

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>> Ms. Jones said that she would not make any other public comment "at
>> this personally difficult time" and that she hoped her privacy would
>> be respected.

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>> Ms. Jones, 55, originally from Albany, had on various occasions
>> represented herself as having degrees from three upstate New York
>> institutions: Albany Medical College, Union College and Rensselaer
>> Polytechnic Institute. In fact, she had no degrees from any of those
>> places, or anywhere else, M.I.T. officials said.

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>> A spokesman for Rensselaer said Ms. Jones had not graduated there,
>> though she did attend as a part-time nonmatriculated student during
>> the 1974-75 school year. The other colleges said they had no record of
>> her.

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>> Phillip L. Clay, M.I.T.'s chancellor, said in an interview that a
>> college degree was probably not required for Ms. Jones's entry-level
>> job in the admissions office when she arrived in 1979. And by the time
>> she was appointed admissions dean in 1997, Professor Clay said, she
>> had already been in the admissions office for many years, and
>> apparently little effort was made to check what she had earlier
>> presented as her credentials.

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>> "In the future," he said, "we will take a big lesson from this
>> experience."

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>> Since last fall, Ms. Jones had been making speeches around the country
>> to promote her book, "Less Stress, More Success: A New Approach to
>> Guiding Your Teen Through College Admissions and Beyond," written with
>> a pediatrician, Dr. Kenneth R. Ginsburg. The book had added to her
>> reputation as a kind of guru of the movement to tame the college
>> admissions frenzy.

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>> "Less Stress, More Success" addresses not only the pressure to be
>> perfect but also a need to live with integrity.

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>> "Holding integrity is sometimes very hard to do because the temptation
>> may be to cheat or cut corners," it says. "But just remember that
>> 'what goes around comes around,' meaning that life has a funny way of
>> giving back what you put out."

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>> Professor Clay said the dean for undergraduate education, Daniel
>> Hastings, received information 10 days ago questioning Ms. Jones's
>> academic background. M.I.T. officials would not say who had provided
>> the information.

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>> "There are some mistakes people can make for which 'I'm sorry' can be
>> accepted, but this is one of those matters where the lack of integrity
>> is sufficient all by itself," Professor Clay said. "This is a very sad
>> situation for her and for the institution. We have obviously placed a
>> lot of trust in her."

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>> On the campus, where Ms. Jones was widely admired, almost revered, for
>> her humor, outspokenness and common sense, students and faculty
>> members alike seemed both saddened and shocked.

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>> "It's like a Thomas Hardy tragedy, because she did so much good, but
>> something she did long ago came back and trumped it," said one friend,
>> Leslie C. Perelman, director of the M.I.T. program in writing and
>> humanistic studies.

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>> Mike Hurley, a freshman chemistry student, said, "It was surprising,"
>> adding, "Everyone who was admitted here probably knows her, at least
>> her name."

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>> Mr. Hurley said that the admissions office had been unusually
>> accessible, with Ms. Jones's "bright" personality and blogs for
>> incoming students.
>> "Whenever someone's integrity is questioned," he said, "it sets a bad
>> example, but I feel like the students can get past that and look at
>> what she's done for us as a whole."

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>> Rachel Ellman, who studies aerospace engineering, said, "I feel like
>> she's irreplaceable."

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>> Ms. Jones had received the institute's highest honor for
>> administrators, the M.I.T. Excellence Award for Leading Change, and
>> many college admissions officers and high school college counselors
>> said yesterday that whatever her personal shortcomings, her efforts
>> deserved respect.

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>> "She's been working and presenting a lot of important ideas about our
>> business," said Rod Skinner, director of college counseling at Milton
>> Academy, the Massachusetts prep school. "What I'm hoping is that the
>> quality of the research and the book will hold up."

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>> Ms. Jones was hired by the admissions office in 1979 to recruit young
>> women, who at the time made up only 17 percent of the institute's
>> undergraduates, compared with nearly half today.

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>> Since she entered the field, admissions to M.I.T. and other elite
>> institutions have become increasingly competitive, and she made her
>> mark with her efforts to turn down the flame of competition.

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>> Among other things, she told students that they did not need perfect
>> SAT scores to get into M.I.T. She also redesigned the institute's
>> application form, leaving less space for students to list their
>> extracurricular activities, so as not to imply that every student
>> needed 10 activities to fill the 10 lines that used to be there.

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>> Competition remains fierce, though. For the coming fall, M.I.T.
>> accepted 12 percent of 12,443 applicants.

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>> Those who attended this month's events for admitted students said Ms.
>> Jones had been in good spirits, especially at a Saturday night finale.
>> There, Ms. Jones, who in younger days was a torch singer at upstate
>> New York clubs, took part in a "battle of the bands," singing, "You
>> Can't Always Get What You Want."

>
> Bill Gates didn't have a college degree. So are Steve Jobs, Steve
> Wozniak, Steve Ballmer