A University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) graduate who won a prestigious scholarship to Oxford University last year was one of just 32 scholars selected from a pool of 2,300 applicants. After lying about being abused and growing up in poverty, she lost her scholarship.
According to the Dailymail, 24-year-old Mackenzie Fierceton described herself as a low-income, queer, first-generation student at the Pennsylvania school. However, when she applied for the Rhodes scholarship to attend the University of Oxford, she shared a false story of overcoming an abusive mother, welfare, and spending time in foster care.
After Fierceton's story appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, an anonymous tip told to the Rhodes Trust and UPenn that her story wasn't all true. According to the information, Fierceton attended Whitfield School, a private school in St. Louis, Missouri, with a $30,000 tuition.
In 2014, Fierceton mother, Dr. Carrie Morrison, a radiologist of Chesterfield, Missouri, was arrested after being accused of pushing her daughter down a flight of stairs and leaving her bloodied. The St. Louis Post Dispatch reports Dr. Morrison was charged with felony child abuse, for which Fierceton spent less than a year in foster care.
However, following an investigation of the allegation, the two felony charges and one misdemeanor charge against Dr. Morrison were dropped — which Fierceton failed to disclose in her application essay.
In Fierceton's essay, she said her mother beat her up and threw her into a metal table after throwing her down a flight of stairs. Fierceton tells how the day after the incident, she woke up, drove herself to school, then collapsed in front of a teacher. Afterward, she said, she woke up "caked in blood" in the hospital.
Dr. Morrison told police she tried to remove gum from Fierceton's hair when she allegedly jerked away from her and fell down the stairs. After the incident, Mackenzie stayed with a foster family and changed her name to Fierceton before applying to college.
As a result of discovering Fierceton lied on her application, the University of Pennsylvania has withheld Fierceton's master's degree pending further investigation, as she has withdrawn from the Rhodes program.
In Dec., Fierceton filed a lawsuit against the University of Pennsylvania and Rhodes Trust investigators. According to Bigtrial, Fierceton claims that Penn officials are targeting her for retaliation after becoming a key witness in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed against the university.
As part of the alleged conspiracy, the lawsuit claims that Penn officials conducted a "sham" investigation that forced the student to voluntarily give up her Rhodes scholarship after Penn officials threatened to rescind her undergraduate degree and withhold her master's degree. On top of that, the lawsuit claims that Penn officials threatened to send the student to jail for allegedly fraudulently representing herself in her application to become a Rhodes scholar. However, the University of Pennsylvania told the DailyMail it would not retaliate against her.
"Penn and the Rhodes Trust received credible information that called into question statements Ms. Fierceton made in her applications for admission, financial assistance, and scholarships," a representative for the University of Pennsylvania said.
“The Rhodes Trust conducted its own investigation, during which it considered evidence and arguments provided by Ms. Fierceton and her attorney. … The Trust then gave Ms. Fierceton the opportunity to withdraw her candidacy if she chose to do so. Ms. Fierceton accepted that offer and withdrew her candidacy," the rep added.
