Universities Weblog

(Source: University of Maryland)A sobering study by USA Today suggests college freshmen die at greater rates than do upperclassmen. Consider:

A USA TODAY analysis of 620 deaths of four-year college and university students since Jan. 1, 2000, finds that freshmen are uniquely vulnerable. They account for more than one-third of undergraduate deaths in the study, although they are only 24% of the undergraduates at those institutions, according to National Center for Education Statistics data analyzed by the American Council on Education for USA TODAY.

College administrators, public health officials and parents increasingly have become concerned about the safety of college students after highly publicized deaths on campus from alcohol abuse and other causes. USA TODAY set out to take a close look at the problem, to study where and how students died over a six-year period and to determine whether their deaths could have been prevented.

Overall, the analysis of hundreds of reports from media, watchdog groups, schools and police found that illnesses, homicides and motor vehicle accidents are the leading causes of death, as they are for all Americans ages 15 to 24. Suicide claims as many lives as drugs and alcohol but is not always reported by the media, making the count in the analysis incomplete.

But the dominant finding is that freshmen emerge as the class most likely to make a fatal mistake:

• Freshmen die at higher rates from illness, accounting for 40% of undergraduate deaths from natural causes.
• They're more likely to take their own lives; they account for 40% of all undergraduate suicides.
• They represent half of all undergraduate deaths from falls from windows, balconies and rooftops.
• More of them die on school property; 47% of the undergraduates who die on campus are freshmen. This statistic has proven the most surprising, and disturbing, to analysts, experts and parents who imagine the campus to be idyllic. And safe.

You can read the full article here.

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