‘What if Yale finds out?’
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2023
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“Post Reports” looks at why students were asked to leave Yale University while they were having mental health crises.
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Nicolette Mántica was having a tough time at Yale. At the end of her freshman year, she started struggling with her mental health. She eventually was taken to a hospital for help. While there, college officials gave her no other choice but to withdraw, she said, and she went back to her home in rural Georgia.
Reporter William Wan talked to Nicolette and other students about their similar experiences with the prestigious university after they sought help for suicidal ideation or other mental health crises.
Wan also looked into how Yale’s policies changed recently and what students – both current and former – think of the changes.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A note to listeners before we get started. |
| 0:05.5 | This episode includes discussions about suicide. |
| 0:08.5 | Please take care while listening. |
| 0:13.1 | Nicolette Montacan never thought she would get into Yale University. |
| 0:17.6 | So when she got her acceptance letter in 2015, she burst into tears. |
| 0:22.9 | She was so excited. |
| 0:27.6 | Nicolette was living in rural Georgia. |
| 0:30.2 | When she moved to New Haven, Connecticut, she was told Yale would be her new family. |
| 0:35.2 | She said her first semester was magical. |
| 0:39.2 | But toward the end of Nicolette's freshman year, she started struggling with her mental |
| 0:43.4 | health. |
| 0:44.4 | I started to have a lot of anxiety and obsessive thinking that continued on into my |
| 0:50.3 | sophomore year where it really became debilitating. |
| 0:54.1 | I got stuck in obsessive thoughts, spirals, what I would later realize was OCD. |
| 0:59.4 | And I also went through a depressive state. |
| 1:01.8 | And this all came to a head when I was hospitalized at the end of my first semester of my junior |
| 1:07.6 | year. |
| 1:08.6 | Nicolette was in a dark place. |
| 1:11.2 | She harmed herself. |
| 1:13.0 | She said she was still in the hospital when school officials approached her. |
| 1:17.3 | They presented her with paperwork to voluntarily withdraw from the university. |
| 1:22.1 | I asked if there was another option and they said no. |
... |
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