MIT Admissions Dean Resigns in Bizarre Scandal

The dean of admissions at M.I.T. has resigned after revealing she lied on her resume 28 years ago. Marilee Jones, a college-admissions guru and author of a popular book on combating the pressure to be perfect, claimed degrees from three New York colleges; it turns out she doesn't even have a BA.

Admired for her sense of humor and outspokenness, Jones had lobbied for high-school students to stress out less about admissions, just as competition at elite colleges was becoming feverish. “It’s like a Thomas Hardy tragedy, because she did so much good, but something she did long ago came back and trumped it,” one professor told the Times. (More MIT stories.)