"MIT dean of admissions resigns for falsifying resume"

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/04/mit_dean_of_adm.html

By Marcella Bombardieri and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

"Marilee Jones, MIT's dean of admissions who has spoken out nationally against the craze over beefing up teens' resumes, has resigned after 28 years at the school for misrepresenting her academic degrees, university officials said today.

"Jones listed on her resume that she had degrees from Albany Medical College, Union College, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but she had no degrees from any of those schools, said MIT chancellor Phillip Clay."

The article continues, but really there is little else to be said.

I will confess to being surprised and more than mildly shocked.


ETA: why is the emoticon, if you choose 'shocked' actually the basic smile? When I saw that, I put 'shocked' in as an 'other,' but... huh?

Know any high school students who'd both do an experiment and get their parent's ok to do it?

An LJ friend of mine is trying to recruit some high school students to go on a website, with parental permission, for a psych experiment for U Maryland - the high school students will get $20 in itune money, I guess. This is what rejoicingapathy had to say:

I need to borrow your high-schoolers. I know you have some somewhere, and I'll return them in relatively the same condition that you lent them out to me in the first place.


I've mentioned the Fieldtrip project to some of you, and you might've seen the random group that I made in Facebook. To summarize for those who haven't: UMBC's psychology department teams up with the Imaging Research Center figure out what would make kids interested in school, and decided to make a webpage in hopes of discussion and see what happens!

Now, there is an actual way to sign up for the project and we need people to sign up. The psychology department wants at least 120 high-school aged kids by May 1st [Josh's note: The date has now been pushed back to May 15th]. I think this is totally implausible, but hey.

Oh, and they have to be local to the Baltimore area. All of my cousins/siblings are outside of the technically "local" area, but I'll be recruiting them anyway. I think they're loosening the restriction to "Maryland," but I'll find out tomorrow! We hope, anyway.

[Josh's Note: Per the response below, they have broadened it to the whole country. I think this will make it easier by far!]

The kids will have to sign a waiver, and their parents, and so forth. The program has UMBC's IRB approval, NIH funding, and is legit, and I can provide all the paperwork that says so if you need that.


So, here's what I need you (hopefully many of you) to do:

1. Provide me with a kid who is in high school, be they your little brother, cousin, daughter of a friend, or a current friend who happens to still be in high school.

2. Direct this child to talk to me via the magic of the internets! --or the phone or in person if they want to be lame. They will need a computer in order to participate in the project anyway (since it takes place online).

3. I want this kid to sign up for the project, but more importantly, I want to get them to recruit their friends. In order to do this, I might bribe them with pizza and candy as a motivator. The project will bribe the kids who sign up with $20 of free iTunes as well. So if you know any kids who like being bribed, send them thisaway.


Here's some form letters made by the psych grad student, Colleen.

Email for recruiting thru parents:


Dear Parent,
Do you have a child who:
•Is not enthusiastic about school?
•Lives in the state of Maryland?
•Has an up-to-date computer and graphics card that allows him/her to watch video clips?

If so, he/she may be eligible to participate in an innovative research project that could lead to ways to help all students do better in school.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, along with media and technology companies such as Nokia, InfoCulture, Cellblock and others are starting an online dialog to bring out teenagers’ real thoughts about school. Why? Because when kids don’t buy into their education, they drop out—either mentally or entirely. Efforts to fix education have focused on schools, but in a free society, even the best school can’t force an unwilling student to learn. And the United States has a lot of unwilling students. Fortunately, the Internet now offers us an affordable way to reach most kids directly to try and shake loose anti-education attitudes. The Fieldtrip online community will present its members with a series of short films with new, engaging perspectives to stimulate discussion among teens (like your son or daughter). The films are a kind of online reality show made by talented young filmmakers collaborating with seasoned pros—all advised by a great team of university-based researchers. We'll capture the text discussions, analyze them, and use our findings to help us understand young people think about learning. The project will last a month and participants will end up with new thoughts and $20 worth of iTunes.

To learn more and register, go to: http://umbc.edu/fieldtrip

Hope to see you there!



Email for recruiting thru students:

Do you struggle to care about schoolwork? If so, and you attend a high school in the Baltimore area, we need you.

Are American schools a bad match for Americans? Is it too disconnected from reality? Too boring? Not worth it? We’re not sure anybody’s asked you, so we will. For a month, starting May 15th, this site will stream videos made by older teenagers collaborating with professional filmmakers. They’re exploring these questions to get you talking (typing to each other actually, so we can capture the text and read it). You get to watch innovative films that deal with issues any breathing teenager is probably interested in. You’ll be part of important research that can help people. AND, you’ll get $20 worth of iTunes.
To learn more and register, go to: http://umbc.edu/fieldtrip

Hope to see you there!



Form letters, as we all know, are ineffective and lame, but at least they convey some information. Send them if you don't feel like doing the infinitely easier option of relaying everyone to me, where I can answer the questions.

Her Link

Her Leave a comment