Surprise (Not): Harvard Students Are Twice as Mentally Ill as the General Population

The Ivy League is having a mental health crisis.

"Forty-seven percent of surveyed seniors indicated that they experienced mental illness at some point in their time at Harvard, and 13 percent said they were unsure," according to a survey of the Class of 2026 conducted by the Harvard Crimson student newspaper. That’s more than double the rate of the general adult U.S. population, which the federal government’s National Institute of Mental Health estimates at 23.1 percent, noting that "Mental illnesses include many different conditions that vary in degree of severity, ranging from mild to moderate to severe."

At Princeton, a senior survey conducted by the Princetonian student newspaper found 60.1 percent had mental health counseling or therapy during college, with 36.3 percent getting help from the university’s counseling and psychological services and 23.8 percent finding outside assistance. That’s also much higher than the overall population; NPR reported last year on a study that found "the number of American adults getting outpatient talk therapy grew from 6.5% to 8.5%."

Yale faced a 2022 federal lawsuit for failing to accommodate "students with mental health disabilities." Students and alumni, organized in groups such as Mental Health Justice at Yale, the Yale Law School Mental Health Alliance, and Elis for Rachael, are still advocating; a recent Yale Daily News opinion piece, published under the headline "Yalies for mental health," laments the quality of the counseling services on offer at the university, arguing, "many students still wait unacceptably long to see a therapist. For instance, upon returning from summer vacation, students do not automatically continue seeing their therapist from the previous school year. Instead, they must undergo the placement process all over again, unnecessarily lengthening the time it takes to be matched with a therapist. Yale has not met student requests for a more diverse range of therapists. Yale still does not offer an affordable Preferred Provider Organization option for health insurance. And Yale did not agree to implement annual mental health first-aid training for students, faculty, staff and administrators."