UMC suburban college student lied about background to become prestigious Rhodes Scholar

[Anonymous]

MacKenzie Fierceton was a 2020 Rhodes Scholar and UPENN Masters student. She has been stripped of both as the admissions committees at her universities has found the lied about her entire background.

She wasn’t homeless and low income. She went to a private school and rode horses in the tony St. Louis suburbs.

Categorizing herself as a first-generation, low-income student with a history of horrific abuse — who also earned nearly straight A’s and was student-body president in high school — Fierceton certainly fit the bill. She was admitted to Penn in 2015 to study political science, then began studying for a clinical master’s degree in social work in 2018.

When Fierceton’s Rhodes scholarship was announced, the Philadelphia Inquirer profiled the academic star in November 2020, noting that she “grew up poor, cycling through the rocky child welfare system [and] bounced from one foster home to the next.”

https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-dredging

[Anonymous]

This may be more complicated. According to this article, the young woman did grow up with a physician mom, but was removed from her home because of parental abuse in high school because of parental abuse and entered foster care. This is not your typical privileged suburban kid.



https://www.bigtrial.net/2021/12/lawsuit-pillow-talk-conspiracy-between.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This may be more complicated. According to this article, the young woman did grow up with a physician mom, but was removed from her home because of parental abuse in high school because of parental abuse and entered foster care. This is not your typical privileged suburban kid.



https://www.bigtrial.net/2021/12/lawsuit-pillow-talk-conspiracy-between.html

The lawsuit doesn’t pass the smell test. What reason would University brass have to do this? It’s good for the university to have alumni be Rhode scholars.

[Anonymous]

If she was telling the truth, hopefully Penn makes it right.

[Anonymous]

A student can go to private school and be homeless.

[Anonymous]

So to summarize -

1. Her mother is a doctor
2. There was some kind of incident between mother and teenage daughter that led to abuse charges (later dropped)
3. The daughter was actually in foster care for a period of time
4. The daughter definitely embellished significant parts of her origin story

Wow, that's a lot. Fierceton sounds like she has a few screws loose, but maybe so does her mother?

[Anonymous]

This is a very bad look on the university if the accusations are proven to be true.

[Anonymous]

Bro the name should’ve been a dead giveaway!

People from the streets don’t name their kids mackenzie!

[Anonymous]

Wow, what a mess! Hard to know what's true and what is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bro the name should’ve been a dead giveaway!

People from the streets don’t name their kids mackenzie!

You sound very sheltered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So to summarize -

1. Her mother is a doctor
2. There was some kind of incident between mother and teenage daughter that led to abuse charges (later dropped)
3. The daughter was actually in foster care for a period of time
4. The daughter definitely embellished significant parts of her origin story

Wow, that's a lot. Fierceton sounds like she has a few screws loose, but maybe so does her mother?

5. Her mother is apparently the one who outed her.

It's a mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This may be more complicated. According to this article, the young woman did grow up with a physician mom, but was removed from her home because of parental abuse in high school because of parental abuse and entered foster care. This is not your typical privileged suburban kid.



https://www.bigtrial.net/2021/12/lawsuit-pillow-talk-conspiracy-between.html

This article is very interesting. I absolutely believe that she was in foster care when she graduated from high school. Universities (and their financial aid offices) do not just take someone's word on this kind of thing. Paperwork would have been submitted.

This is clearly a very complicated situation, but I can guarantee you that this young woman's bio mom is a real piece of work. It is extremely hard in our system for someone as educated and privileged as a physician to lose custody of their child. The abuse must of been horrific.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This may be more complicated. According to this article, the young woman did grow up with a physician mom, but was removed from her home because of parental abuse in high school because of parental abuse and entered foster care. This is not your typical privileged suburban kid.



https://www.bigtrial.net/2021/12/lawsuit-pillow-talk-conspiracy-between.html

This is clearly a very complicated situation, but I can guarantee you that this young woman's bio mom is a real piece of work. It is extremely hard in our system for someone as educated and privileged as a physician to lose custody of their child. The abuse must of been horrific.

[Anonymous]

Financial aid and admissions do not just take someone's word that they were/are in foster care. This is something that you have to provide documentation to claim.

[Anonymous]

Wow. They're probably both mentally ill, unfortunately. Very tough case.