What the article neglects to mention is that young adulthood is the typical age of onset for mental illnesses such as Major Depression, Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia. I'd be curious to ask the suicide rate of the same age group who are not in college.
My cousin's son killed himself last month while a grad student at Michigan State. He had gotten engaged the weekend before he did it, was living with his fiance, was getting good grades, was very active in Boy Scouts and Venturing and was an APO. He never touched alcohol or drugs. He was fine earlier that day when watching the MSU-UM football game with his brother, cousin and some of their friends, including his girlfriend. We'll never figure out the "why" and he showed none of the signs until minutes before he did it, when he called his fiance at work and asked if she could come home because he was lonely. That was the one and only indication that anything was going on. His brother and cousin now think that he was actually manic the weekend before and are wondering if he was experiencing his first bipolar episode. They thought he was just very excited about getting engaged at the time. But, we'll never know now
Dee