In an odd twist to an odd story, it turns out that Marilee Jones, the prominent, and now disgraced, Dean of Admissions at M.I.T., has a college degree after all. But it is not from RPI or Union college, as she had falsely claimed.
Acording to the New York Times,
"Ms. Jones earned a B.A. in biology at the College of Saint Rose, an independent college in Albany, where she grew up. Officials at the College of Saint Rose confirmed that they had awarded a bachelor’s degree to a Marilee Jones in 1973, when Ms. Jones would have been 21."
What is the take-away here?
Ms. Jones had earned a degree from Saint Rose, a college neither competitive nor prestigious. She nonetheless parlayed her unquestioned talents into a high-powered position in academia. She counseled talented students not to go nuts about admissions to prestigious colleges. Their talents, she reasoned, would eventually raise them to appropriate positions in society.
And she was right! Her degree from lowly Saint Rose would probably not have blocked her from her entry level position at MIT, while her rise was based solely upon her talents.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
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1 comment:
Your post makes perfect sense.
I wonder if the real lesson doesn't go deeper than the obvious always-tell-the-truth mantra. Maybe the real lesson is: what good are all these silly credentials if a woman without any of them can rise to the top of her field?
Maybe such credentials serve only to eliminate the innovative and clever in favor of the plodding and the dull.
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