MIT's Suicide Rate?

[MIT2010]

<p>I am totally telling the turth: MANY people have told me that MIT has one of the highest suicide rates among the national universities. I seriously doubt this statement; would anybody post some links (like showing the actual suicide statistics across the nation) to prove or disprove the statement claimed by many of my friends.</p>

<p>EDIT: or maybe they are just too jealous that I got into MIT, so they keep saying that?</p>

[Sephiroth226]

<p>Or maybe it shouldn’t matter…</p>

<p>If your suicidial, then you probably will kill yourself at any university.</p>

[molliebatmit]

<p>Oh lord, not this argument again.</p>

<p>Facts:

1. Science/engineering and business majors tend to commit suicide at higher rates than non-science/engineering, non-business majors. MIT is predominantly a school of science, engineering and business majors.
   (I used to have a source for this, but the page has been moved.)</p>

<ol>
<li>Men kill themselves at a higher rate than women. In the 1990s, when MIT had a run of undergraduate suicides, the school was approximately 75% male.
[Here[/url</a>] it’s noted that

In fact, MIT’s suicide rate is below the national average if one adjusts figures for the school’s overwhelmingly male student body [during the years of the study].

</li>
<li>Statistics like this are terribly vulnerable to small swings in absolute numbers. The absolute number of suicides is very small, and therefore it takes many of them spread over many years to accurately determine whether or not the rate in one place is higher or lower than the rate in another. </li>
</ol>

<p>My personal favorite [url=<a href=“Talk:Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Archive 1 - Wikipedia”>Talk:Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Archive 1 - Wikipedia]mathematical</a> treatment](<a href=“http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p021001a.html]Here[/url”>http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p021001a.html) concludes that it’s not possible to say whether or not MIT’s suicide rate is higher than one would expect, and it won’t be possible for another thirty years:

Because of small number statistics, the “true” suicide rate – i.e., that that would be measured by an very large MIT in the limit of an infinite number of students – is, to 95% confidence, approximately 100,000<em>(11 +/- 2</em>sqrt(11)/48,000). At this level, MIT’s suicide rate is consistent with the national average… it would take approximately another thirty three years in order to obtain a measurement of the MIT suicide rate that could be distinguished from the national average at 95% confidence.

</p>

<p>There are a lot of things that people say about MIT that are not true. This is a fact of MIT life.</p>

[MIT2010]

<p>ok, thanks god! so, there are no suicide yet in MIT since 21st century, right?</p>

[molliebatmit]

<p>My sophomore year, a junior drowned in the river in December and wasn’t found until the spring. There were some rumblings that maybe it was a suicide, but I don’t believe it was eventually declared one following investigation.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www-tech.mit.edu/V124/N11/11obit.11n.html[/url]”>http://www-tech.mit.edu/V124/N11/11obit.11n.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[mercurysquad]

<p>lol MIT2010… what are you doing? Every conceivable question about MIT… why does suicide rate (although a serious issue) matter to you? Just chill. I hope there is not a question about density of milk sold around campus. ;)</p>

[girlfriendmb]

<p>that is such a sad article, especially coming home from a mock drunken driving crash at my school earlier.</p>

<p>my host told me stories about some girl lighting hersel fo fire and someone else rollerblading into the charles river.</p>

[jnnypea]

<p>girlfriend, I just came hone from a mock drunken driving crash at my school today and I read that article, man its sad.</p>