Jaden Smith not a member of Class of 2022
Professor says Facebook post that claimed the actor was admitted is untrue
Jaden Smith, the 19-year-old son of actor and rapper Will Smith, is not a member of MIT’s Class of 2022, despite an anonymous post by the Facebook page “MIT Confessions” that claimed so.
The Dec. 26 post read, “JADEN SMITH IS MIT CLASS OF 2022!!!” It garnered more than 200 reactions and 30 comments from Facebook users.
However, Drew FitzGerald, the creative director of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, personally knows the Smith family and refuted the Facebook post. “Jaden is not class of 2022 sorry,” FitzGerald wrote in an email to The Tech Thursday.
FitzGerald was previously the Creative Director of Urban Music and Soundtracks at MCA Records of Universal Studios, where he worked with Will Smith. “I’ve known [the Smiths] for about twenty years, and we’re very familial,” FitzGerald said in an earlier phone interview with The Tech.
FitzGerald coordinated Jaden Smith’s visit to MIT Sept. 11. Smith sat in on Professor Jeffrey Grossman’s 3.091 (Introduction to Solid State Chemistry) class, and met the heads of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), Plasma Science and Fusion Center, and MIT MakerSystem.
Fitzgerald also wrote in his email, “However [Smith] will likely be on campus for some activities in 2018.”