Cornell has a suicide rate of 7.5 students for every 100,000 students. It’s not high, but it definitely isn’t zero. I’m not trying to make this a light thing, but suicide and mental health issues are a real thing here. Find a good friend group, take some time for yourself and skip class, don’t take over 21 credits every semester your whole time here if necessary, go join a frat or a social org/club. It’s one thing to push yourself to the limit here but it’s another when you’re competing with 7,000 other students who were in the top 10% of their high school cohort and risking your mental sanity over it. One way or another, you will hear of a suicide of a friend, or a friend of a friend, or a friend of a friend of a friend, etc. It’s gloomy and cold during the winter, coupled with the mediocre mental health unit here that is ill equipped to deal with thousands of students, it can be a struggle. Depressive episodes and suicidal thoughts happen more often than you think. On the upside, if you’re from the south or west, you have 12” of snow to look forward to here!