I am not surprised at the high suicide rate at MIT. I think that it must be shocking to go from being the smartest person among your peers to being solidly average.
I went to look at standard IQ distributions. A person with an IQ of 145 on the Stanford Binet scale is the smartest out of 406 people on a normal distribution. I figure public high schools have a pretty normal distribution. If the graduating high school class size is 406, the 145 IQ is likely to be the smartest person there.
However, if 145 goes off to a top tier college, what was once rare, is now not only not rare, it is simply average. And, 145 will get a shock because there are likely to be people that are substantially smarter than he is.
Some of the people that find themselves in highly competitive environments are many times simply unprepared for the competition. There is an advantage in going to one of the elite prep schools, because that same 145 is going to be challenged on a regular basis. So, going into a competitive college is not going to be nearly the shock.
To keep things in perspective, I frequently tell my bonus son who has a high IQ that although he is smarter than the average person, in the metroplex alone, there are about 15,000 other people who are at least as smart as he is. And alot of the people are going to be smarter.
I thought that perhaps the bleak weather influenced suicides there also. But I found that the suicide rate in Massachusetts is one of the lowest in the country. 47th out of 51 (they included District of Columbia which is 51st).
elaine
I went to look at standard IQ distributions. A person with an IQ of 145 on the Stanford Binet scale is the smartest out of 406 people on a normal distribution. I figure public high schools have a pretty normal distribution. If the graduating high school class size is 406, the 145 IQ is likely to be the smartest person there.
However, if 145 goes off to a top tier college, what was once rare, is now not only not rare, it is simply average. And, 145 will get a shock because there are likely to be people that are substantially smarter than he is.
Some of the people that find themselves in highly competitive environments are many times simply unprepared for the competition. There is an advantage in going to one of the elite prep schools, because that same 145 is going to be challenged on a regular basis. So, going into a competitive college is not going to be nearly the shock.
To keep things in perspective, I frequently tell my bonus son who has a high IQ that although he is smarter than the average person, in the metroplex alone, there are about 15,000 other people who are at least as smart as he is. And alot of the people are going to be smarter.
I thought that perhaps the bleak weather influenced suicides there also. But I found that the suicide rate in Massachusetts is one of the lowest in the country. 47th out of 51 (they included District of Columbia which is 51st).
elaine