@jullianstanley “Not refuting your point – it definitely seems valid-- but I wonder if suicides at high-stress schools are reported more often”
This is almost certainly true. When it happens at Penn, Harvard, Cornell, or MIT, the schools have done a better job of tracking and their school names mean that the item is newsworthy. I don’t think that the news outlets are going to all report it when it happens to a community college student, but Vanderbilt makes it news from their perspective of selling papers.
@kiddie “U Penn has had 10 suicides in three years”
This is a good example of @jullianstanley’s point. Penn counts suicides of all of its students. Even if it happens while they are taking a year off or while they are at home living with their parents on summer break. They also count graduate students. Penn is a mid-sized school with an enrollment of about 25,000 (10k undergrad and 15k graduate). With that many students it is going to happen from time to time (although I think they, and all schools, could take more steps toward prevention and may be able to reduce the rate).
The most odd thing to me is that we don’t hear about suicide more often at the largest schools like Arizona State, Ohio State, Texas A & M, Texas, Minnesota, Indiana and Michigan State. All of these schools are at least twice the size of Penn with over 50,000 students each. Statistically it has to be happening, but we don’t hear about it in the news for some reason.
I am not convinced that there is a causal relationship between top schools and higher suicide rates. The demands and stress levels can be high at top schools and that can certainly contribute, but unidentified or untreated mental illness is the most likely root cause, in my opinion.
Parents can also do more. Teach your child about depression, and anxiety. Teach them that mental illness is real and treatable. Teach them to reach out to you, of seek a medical opinion, if they even think it is possible that they may be developing any form of mental illness (these often first appear at college age). Be supportive of your college age student and stay in regular contact with them.