College Student Suicide

Life is precious for everyone. However, suicide can happen in just a few minutes. Recently, I read an article "NYU Freshman's Suicide Raises Adjustment Issues" from The New York Sun written by Sarah Portlock. This article aroused my thinking about college life. Portlock writes, "A freshman, Allan Oakley Hunter, 18, leapt from the roof of a 15-story Union Square dormitory and was pronounced dead at the scene." From this article, I learned that Hunter was a student who appeared to be heading toward a good future. Nobody knows why he chose suicide after Hunter had attended the university for several months. From comments given by his professor and father, we can find some hints. One reason is that he was not ready to go to the university. Another reason is that he did not feel comfortable in the early months of college and he got out of his rhythm with too little sleep and not the right foods to eat. The last reason is that he was struggling with emotional problems, the added the pressure of college and a new environment. In the article, the statement from his professor, Ms. Rinaldi, who has taught freshmen at NYU for nearly a decade, gave me a deep impression: "This is an intimidating world for a lot of people" (Portlock).

Hunter's suicide is not an isolated incident. In the article "College Student Suicide" from Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, Lisa J. Schwartz and Howard A. Friedman state, "Of the 1,455 students surveyed, 53 percent indicated that they had experienced what they would label 'depression' since beginning college" (80). The percentage of first-year students having depression is so high that we have to pay much more attention to figure out why some freshmen choose to commit suicide when they take courses at university.