"It is almost taken as a given that no matter how distressing the thoughts [of self-harm] are, or how productive it might be to talk about them in a therapeutic session, bringing them up will most often result in hospitalization, unless you’re very delicate with your words," she said. "I know students who have been hospitalized involuntarily, or asked to take medical leave. When it happens involuntarily, the assumption is that you’re not capable of protecting yourself, or handling yourself, or even evaluating the state of affairs [you find yourself in] reasonably."

Yale’s policies state that the school can force students to withdraw for medical reasons when they pose "a danger to self or others," or refuse to cooperate with the administration’s efforts to make such a determination. This is standard across colleges and universities around the country. Yale refuses to comment on specific cases for confidentiality reasons, but student accounts of compulsory withdrawals in op-eds and online forums describe harrowing nights spent at Yale-New Haven Hospital, where undergraduates are taken in emergencies, as well as the various administrative and psychological challenges they faced when trying to return to campus. Last year, Rachel Williams—then a readmitted freshman at Yale—published an essay in the student newspaper recounting her experience of being hospitalized under school’s orders after cutting herself. She was eventually told she would have to withdraw from Yale and go home, with no guarantee of readmission. "Upon release from the hospital … my Yale ID was confiscated, as was my room key," Williams wrote. "I was given one evening to pack up my entire life." She returned to school in January 2014.

Although Williams's case may be extreme, such an outcome is what many students likely fear when meeting to discuss mental-health issues with school officials, such as a Yale clinician or academic dean. Tammy Pham, a senior who was friends with Luchang Wang, said many students at elite schools are so driven to succeed that taking a leave of absence does not feel like an option, even if doing so could be beneficial. As at similar schools, there is pressure at Yale to always appear happy or "okay." Pham added that she hopes Yale will remove obstacles to withdrawal and readmission for students, such as the requirement to take courses while away from Yale and the need to declare a leave of absence within the first 10 days of any given semester.

"Basically, the only difference between a leave of absence and withdrawal is foresight, and yet it has massive repercussions," she said. "Ten days seems arbitrary and restrictive."

For its part, Yale in December formed a six-person committee to start reviewing its withdrawal and readmission policies. And in late January, just days after Wang’s death, the university sent a letter to recently readmitted students asking for their "feedback and advice" about the entire withdrawal and readmission process. (It’s unclear whether the letter was sent in direct response to Wang’s death; it was leaked by a readmitted student on Facebook in early February, and the committee’s chairman deferred comment to Conroy, Yale’s spokesman.) Among the questions included in the letter: "Was your decision to withdraw from Yale College affected by your concern for readmission?" and "Did you understand the conditions, if any, of readmission, such as the holding of a job, enrollment in college courses, or therapeutic or medical treatment?" Conroy could not say how long the review will take.