The issue of students breaking under pressure was brought to my attention recently with the opioid-related death of Columbia University student Gage Bellitto. Bellitto was seeing a psychiatrist and had had problems with drugs and alcohol since high school. However, he pushed himself to get into an Ivy to make his Harvard-educated parents proud.
From the NY Post article:
“Students at competitive schools are at a higher risk of using opioids to cope with academic and social pressures, said Sean Esteban McCabe, a University of Michigan professor and expert on student addiction.”
This article has more info, but it is the Daily Mail.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5409359/Columbia-student-died-opioid-overdose-dorm-room.html