Just Penn being Penn
So now, the University of Pennsylvania (Lia Thomas’ alma mater, in case anyone missed it) is explaining how a recent graduate exaggerated, invented and outright lied on her Rhodes Scholarship application. (She was awarded the Rhodes but later declined the scholarship under pressure. See below).
It seems that – among many unlikely allegations, she stated on her application that she was a first generation college student. That is, she was the first in her family to go to college.
Now the fun begins. When it was pointed out that her mother is a practicing medical doctor, Penn bent rhetoric until it looked like a pretzel. First, the university says, this refers to “the first of a family to attend an elite college.” When that didn’t fly, good old Penn accepted the young woman’s explanation that “I identify as a FGLI (first generation, low income) student,” her mother’s six figure income as a radiologist notwithstanding. When this was pointed out, the student claimed to consider herself “a family of one,” so her parents’ incomes don’t count.
So, done deal! If we are swimmers or scholars, at least at Penn we just have to identify
as something we are not. Case closed!