@DeathEater
Most relevant statistic from the article:
You still haven’t provided any evidence that the Ivies have an “ungodly rate” of suicide compared to other schools.
The “suffering” part sounds undesirable, no matter where it is.
stop looking to that as the only part of what I am saying, I was making a general statement. That has also been backed by other CC members on personal observations. The general idea is that at a “higher up” kind of school, the environment might be more hostile and less enjoyable than it might be somewhere else.
Graduation rates at upper tier schools are very high and suicide rates among young adults in college are no higher and I would venture to guess a tad lower than the general population.
Whether or not someone thrives or fails at the most upper tier schools or the very lowest tier has less to do with the school and more to do with the person/student. Some students will squander and fail in the most enriched supportive college with every advantage available, while another student will scrape, claw, fight and succeed while starting at the lowest ranked struggling institution.
There is a disparity here that has not been discussed (as far as I have seen). Earlier posts make points about graduation rates. Schools that admit more competitive students are going to have higher graduation rates, regardless of their reputation. You are admitting young people who know what it takes to achieve - for better or worse.
If you were to admit the 2016 Harvard class to Univ of Virginia, I would bet money that graduation rates for the state school would rise to their Ivy alternative.
I always find when I’m hiring that the most sensible people from a business perspective are the ones that manage to graduate from a relatively well-known (albeit non-Ivy) school with $5k in student debt than someone from Harvard who has to juggle $1000/mo. loan payments. Go to a school that has a culture you love, maybe a professor who does some wacky research you find fascinating – the rest will fall into place. I wish I could emphasize this to parents/students enough.
http://www.amazon.com/Where-You-Not-Who-Youll/dp/1455532703 does a great job of getting to this point. After you get 10 years of experience at a job, the only advantage you will have for graduating from an Ivy League is the alumni connection. Having said that, I have never had a problem and attended nothing but state schools for my undergrad, master’s or doctorate finding career mentors that I could reach out to once I found the site within the alumni website. 
@jeremyj Kids that graduate from Harvard have on average less than $10,000 in school loans, so perhaps you met some outliers.
If you had to “suffer” to get into an Ivy, I don’t know why you would expect anything to change once you are there with the students you had to “suffer” to keep up with.
Often times, it is easier to get A’s at the top schools due to grade inflation. Getting A’s at HY and S is a joke, and they have the gentleman’s B+.
My daughter must be uncommonly stupid. She’s working her butt off at Harvard.
I’m one of those people who rolls my eyes when a student reveres the “top” schools at the exclusion of others. However, if you are a fit for an Ivy League school I question the assumption that you would “suffer” there. I think there is a good chance that someone who would be accepted to an Ivy and wanted to attend would thrive there. The student I worry about the most is the student who “dreams” of going to an Ivy League school without really understanding why other than its Harvard, Yale etc. If you are accepted to top school I would base my decision on how well it met my needs and how I felt when visiting not on a fear of failing. If you really fear failing then attend somewhere else.
I was about to say the same about my S at Princeton…I was reading this thread thinking wow, I guess he should have picked Harvard or Yale…
Working hard and grade inflation are not mutually exclusive. There’s no doubt that the education at top schools is rigorous and that students work hard there, but even the faculty at the Ivies will admit to you that they practice grade inflation. One professor once told me point-blank it’s partially to keep their students in competition with the others: if all the Harvard and Yale students are coming out with 3.8s but the Columbia students are coming out with 3.4s, the HY students will get into med school/law school/plum consulting jobs and the Columbia students will get left out.
But that’s besides the point. I think the most important thing that supports graduation rates at Ivies is that admissions officers select students who are likely to succeed there and the support services at these places are out of this world. For example, at my great small LAC professors were responsible for advisement of students in selecting classes and solving other academic problems. At Columbia, there’s an entire Center for Student Advising with a phalanx of advising deans whose sole job it is to serve as academic advisors for Columbia students. That can include things like helping students as for extensions on papers when necessary (your claims of illness are much more credible when a university employee emails me to back it up), getting into classes necessary for graduation, deciding whether to take the D or the W, and figuring out a class schedule best suited to one’s chosen career and interests. Advising deans also help coordinate services across the university - so they may make a counseling appointment for you if you need that, help you get with disability services if you need that, encourage you to join X or Y organization if you need that.
There are relevant/similar jobs at other top schools, too. Harvard has this residential dean-type position often held by recent PhDs; their job is basically as the academic advisor of their house, a resource that undergrads can go to when they need help. And so on.