Top 10 schools with most stressful academics?

benny1
Tue, 19 Dec 2006 23:59:21 +0000

Sorry Figgy. Just because it’s been stated here doesn’t make it true. Again, it’s an urban legend that’s been around for decades and Cornell and MIT are always mentioned. In earlier more elaborate versions, it was stated that MIT students jumped off the Mass. Ave bridge and that Cornell had a high suicide rate because of the canyon in the middle of campus. Now it’s apparently just assigned to stress.

Think about it. If there were stats it would require every single college and university in the country to report the death and cause of death of every student on campus and off (including students who die during breaks at home or on spring break in Cancun) to some central accounting facility. Only with this can there be accurate data that lists the suicide rate for Cornell or MIT. There is no such central clearing house. The only data shows the approximate number of total college age persons in the United States who committ suicide each year. A small percentage of colleges do keep records of suicides, but most do not.

You may be interested in this article:

http://www-tech.mit.edu/V120/N6/comp6.6n.html

put out by MIT in 2000. If you read it you will see that it points out the following things:

1. The rate of suicide at MIT was consistent with the rate of suicide nationally among people of the same age.

2. A 1987 study found that only 14 percent of schools keep suicide records. Is it likely that between 1987 and now 100 percent of schools not only keep suicide records but report them to a central clearing house that compiles rankings of the most suicide-prone campuses? Probably not.

3. This article also addresses the Cornell kept suicide records specifically to dispel the myth of its high suicide rate and found that its sucide rate was lower than MIT’s rate and lower than the national average for people in this age group.

This is not to diminish the serious problem of depression and suicide among college students, but let’s be accurate here before just spreading myths and misunderstanding of statistics.