<p>My brother tells me UChicago has the highest suicide rate for colleges in the country. </p>
<p>Can anyone verify or comment on this?</p>
<p>I’ve always heard that distinction belongs to either MIT or Cornell, I’ve never heard it about UChicago, but I don’t have any facts to back this up</p>
<p>According to a Maroon article about a suicide back in 2003, the suicide rate at the U of C is about what you’d expect and consistent with the national suicide rate. There are many resources on campus dealing with mental health, including numerous places to turn in emergency situations during the day or night. I know a couple of students who take advantage of short-term counseling on campus, and it doesn’t seem to have any sort of stigma attached to it. Suicides tend to occur in groups, which contributes to the problem on some college campuses–one suicide is usually followed by others. The students who commit suicide are suffering from serious mental health problems and not the problems encountered in everyday life at any college or university.</p>
<p>The last time an undergrad at Chicago committed suicide was 2003, so I’m pretty sure it can’t have the highest rate around.</p>
<p>The highest suicide rate does not belong to Cornell-that’s urban legend!</p>
<p>Perhaps the fact that Chicago has a day-off in February called “Suicide Prevention Day,” has contributed to this misunderstanding…</p>
<p>OK, I figured it out and the information I received was erroneous</p>
<p>It’s not called “Suicide Prevention Day”, it’s called “Undergraduate Break Day”. You are right, idad, in that students’ decision to call it SPD perpetuates the myth.</p>