On Friday, April 27, Marilee Jones, Dean of Admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, resigned after an investigation by MIT, prompted by an anonymous call, exposed that she had lied about her educational credentials on her résumé. Jones had written that she had graduated from the Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, Albany Medical College and Union College. Jones did take courses at RPI, but did not matriculate there. While initially it seemed that Jones had not even graduated from college, The Boston Globe reported on May 2 that Jones did in fact graduate from The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York with a degree in Biology. MIT initially hired Jones 28 years ago as an administrative assistant. MIT did not check the legitimacy of her credentials then because the job she was hired for was not contingent on a college education. When Jones was hired as Dean of Admissions in 1998, it was not common practice at MIT to investigate résumés of faculty being promoted. Marilee Jones said in a statement issued on April 26, “I misrepresented my academic degrees when I first applied to MIT 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.” Jones was respected in the college admissions field for trying to take the stress out of college admissions. Jones reformed the MIT application by decreasing the amount of lines available to list extracurricular activities and by increasing the amount of female students admitted to MIT. Jones co-wrote a book within this past year, Less Stress, More Success: A New Approach to Guiding Your Teen Through College Admissions and Beyond, about reducing stress in the college application process. Professionals in the field urge that her message and ideology should not be discredited with the recent unveiling of information. John Anderson, Director of College Counseling, said, “I certainly hope that people will take what she had to say very seriously and in that sense separate her personal flaw and not take it out by ignoring what she had to say about admissions.” Ben Jones, Admissions Officer and Communications Director for the Admissions Office at MIT, who worked under the leadership of Jones for three years, wrote in an email, “I don’t think that recent events detract from her admissions ideology at all. If anything, this helps to explain why she was so driven to reduce the pressure on kids to be anything other than themselves.” The recent discovery was unexpected. Jones was considered an expert in the field. She visited Andover this past February for the College Counseling Kick-Off to speak about psychological aspects of the college admissions process for families. Mr. Anderson said, “[My response was] complete and utter shock. I had known Marilee for a number of years and I couldn’t imagine her doing such a thing. She struck me always as a very honest person…we had spent time together I saw her at numerous presentations.” Mr. Jones emphasized that while he believed that Ms. Jones was still capable regardless of this past week’s snafu, a full committee of admissions officers reviewed all applications for admission to MIT. Stuart Schmill, Director of the Educational Council at MIT, will fill the position as interim Dean of Admissions, while a formal search for a permanent dean will begin soon. In a press release from MIT, Dean on Undergraduate Education Daniel E. Hastings said, “This is a sad and unfortunate event…But the integrity of the Institute is our highest priority, and we cannot tolerate this kind of behavior.” Admitted students submitted intent to enroll forms to MIT this past Tuesday. Mr. Anderson does not believe that MIT will suffer greatly from the event, although he said, “It is certainly never good for an institution to have something exposed that is so serious and such a tragic unfolding of events…I really think that students that want to go to MIT will still apply to MIT…I’m sure there are a lot of people [at MIT] concerned about their image and the future.” When asked what students should take from the experience, Mr. Jones wrote in response, “Be true to yourself and represent the real you to others, always.”
