CREVE COEUR, Mo. (Audacy) - Mackenzie Fierceton, a University of Pennsylvania graduate student, lost out on what is known as the world's most prestigious international scholarship program, after claims that she lied on her application about being a "first-generation low-income student."
She graduated from Whitfield School in 2016, a private high school in Missouri, and earned the title of Rhodes Scholar in 2020 as a Penn student. A few months later, she withdrew her application for the scholarship, which covers two years of fees at Oxford University in England.
It's because Fierceton was accused of being "blatantly dishonest" about her childhood in both her Penn and Rhodes applications, according to a report from the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Rhodes committee found she "created and repeatedly shared false narratives about herself" to "serve her interests as an applicant for competitive programs."
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In her application, she said she was a "first-generation low-income student." A 2020 Associated Press story says she claims to have lived in many foster homes in St. Louis and "often slept on the couches of friends."
However, an anonymous email sent to Penn claims Fierceton lied. It said her mother was an educated radiologist and her grandfather had also graduated from college. And it stated that she "lived with her mother in Chesterfield, a suburb west of St. Louis, on a tree-lined cul-de-sac with large houses and well-groomed lawns," according to the Chronicle.
The Rhodes committee questioned her about these claims and determined that she had spent a year in foster care, but had "constructed a narrative regarding her childhood."
After that, Fierceton withdrew her Rhodes application.
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In December, she filed a lawsuit claiming Penn, its trustees, and three Penn officials participated in a complex conspiracy against her. The focus of the claims was that the school was upset over her complaints to administrators about insufficient access to emergency services after she had a seizure at school in early 2020.
“We are disappointed that Mackenzie Fierceton has chosen to file a lawsuit, especially after she has received so many opportunities at Penn,” a Penn representative told The New York Post. “There is no basis for Ms. Fierceton’s claims.”
Fierceton gave a comment to the Chronicle:
“Where I’ve landed is that I have a right to write about my experiences as I experienced them. Period.”
