Lots of surprise expressed on this board but this isn't actually such an uncommon thing, unfortunately. It's not necessarily about the stress of the school or Covid. It just happens. (And there's unfortunately a kind of snowball effect so that when it happens once, the probability of a second... and even a third... rises.

Anonymous wrote:Suicides at colleges is not a new thing. My wife worked in a university counseling center at a large school in the 90s/early 2000s and she was dealing with suicides and suicide attempts all the time.

And you're point is? Obviously it's not new...I've known 2 families first hand that dealt with it. But if there is a cluster of 4 in a short time period at one university, it needs to be addressed now. Mom friend of a UNC student posted yesterday that she was furious at the lack of response from UNC before this.

Anonymous wrote:Only on DCUM could a thread about suicide turn into a pissing match over which schools are challenging enough to justify it.

This 100%. Unbeleivable.

Anonymous wrote:Look at this headline,

FROM 2018

https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/suicide/index.html

No one is saying suicide wasn't a problem before. We are talking about the unprecedented times our young people have/are living through and it's effects on mental health NOW.

Only on DCUM could a thread about suicide turn into a pissing match over which schools are challenging enough to justify it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The median kid at Cornell or Penn (the depressing ivies) do not take 4 courses a semester not is grading a cake walk.

I see people mentioning how many classes kids at various schools take, and the underlying assumption seems to be that all classes are created equal across all institutions.

If a school's standard load is 4 classes, you can bet that the professors have created a workload that will keep smart students very busy.

Calculus is calculus
Organic chem is organic chem.

Nice try though trying to feel better about it.

Ivy schools have connections not harder/better/etc classes.

Look at this headline,

FROM 2018

https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/suicide/index.html

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if they were freshmen -- kids who had to make a big transition to college after being out of school and social life for a year.

Even if they weren't freshmen, they were students who probably had lost the tethers of social connections during the virtual learning b/c of Covid. The stress and isolation is real.

Terrible news.

Both of the dorms where the incidents this weekend happened were places with a lot of freshmen, so this would support that (along with all of the other factors mentioned upthread about what this year's freshman class has gone through). I went to UNC long ago; my heart breaks for the community there right now.

Anonymous wrote:My friend just brought her freshman son home after several FT made her feel something was off. After a night in his own bed, he confessed feeling so overwhelmed that he had suicidal ideation. He graduated from a highly regarded 6-12 private school with straight As all seven years. Right now? They are focusing on stabilizing his mental health. But at some point, they will need to decide whether to pull the plug on just this semester or the university altogether.

Thank God they read the tea leaves correctly, and the boy was willing to come home.

I wish people would bear these stories in mind when they obsess over GPA's, try to twist their kid to take the perfect EC's, all so they can drive around with a bumper sticker that will impress the neighbors.

It is just NOT that important people. You have to convince your children that you love who they are, not that they can be rehabilitated into something worthwhile IF their school's USNWR ranking is high enough.

This is not about the pandemic, though many of you may seek comfort in that belief.

The documentary Race to Nowhere came out in 2009.

Anonymous wrote:Tragic.

I think we're just beginning to see the impact of a year and a half of social isolation (and let's face it, of teenagers processing a global pandemic that shut their worlds down in the blink of an eye).

As adults, we've become almost numb to all the ways life has become "changed" "less than" "isolated' and "the new normal." These kids were just beginning to figure out who they are and how they wanted to be in the world when all of this hit. Is it any wonder when we ship them off to school (for many, as one of their first social interactions in a year plus) that many would break?

I think you're right.

And the people saying "suicide has always been a thing" are ignoring the fact that young people experienced something we haven't seen in a century and we shouldn't just blow it off as "to be expected." We're all so interested in going back to normal that a lot of people haven't paid attention to repairing the psychological damage at home. They just want to send their kid to a campus as if the colleges will magically get them back to whatever normal was.

Suicides at colleges is not a new thing. My wife worked in a university counseling center at a large school in the 90s/early 2000s and she was dealing with suicides and suicide attempts all the time.

Anonymous wrote:
The median kid at Cornell or Penn (the depressing ivies) do not take 4 courses a semester not is grading a cake walk.

I see people mentioning how many classes kids at various schools take, and the underlying assumption seems to be that all classes are created equal across all institutions.

If a school's standard load is 4 classes, you can bet that the professors have created a workload that will keep smart students very busy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really surprising.

Isn’t unc a pretty chill, work life balance, fun, pretty student body school?

It isn’t Cornell.

The Ivy League students only take 4 classes a semester and have grade inflation.

Flagship State schools are harder.

The median kid at Cornell or Penn (the depressing ivies) do not take 4 courses a semester not is grading a cake walk.

Tragic.

I think we're just beginning to see the impact of a year and a half of social isolation (and let's face it, of teenagers processing a global pandemic that shut their worlds down in the blink of an eye).

As adults, we've become almost numb to all the ways life has become "changed" "less than" "isolated' and "the new normal." These kids were just beginning to figure out who they are and how they wanted to be in the world when all of this hit. Is it any wonder when we ship them off to school (for many, as one of their first social interactions in a year plus) that many would break?

My friend just brought her freshman son home after several FT made her feel something was off. After a night in his own bed, he confessed feeling so overwhelmed that he had suicidal ideation. He graduated from a highly regarded 6-12 private school with straight As all seven years. Right now? They are focusing on stabilizing his mental health. But at some point, they will need to decide whether to pull the plug on just this semester or the university altogether.