An upcoming college freshman was reported dead due to alcohol poisoning a day before his first day in Texas Tech University, raising alarm on the dangers of the first few weeks in college.

Dalton Debrick was found dead last month at an off-campus house near the Texas Tech University after celebrating the beginning of a new school year with the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.

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His grieving family remembered Debrick as "a good kid with a very bright future helping others" and who was only starting to "discover himself."

Debrick's death was just one of the increasing fatalities involving college freshmen who are about to enter a new chapter in their lives.

A day prior to his death, a similar incident occurred in Michigan State University when an international student died following a night of drinking at the university's "move-in weekend."

Going back two days more, Jack Crean, an 18-year-old upcoming freshman in Pennsylvania State University jumped from about 85 feet high to kill himself the weekend before classes were due to start.

His body was found at about 11 a.m. on August 24 on the pavement of the Hetzel Union Building-Robeson Center which was being renovated at the time and had a construction crane where he allegedly jumped from.

In about a week before that, another college freshman from Towson University plunged to his death from a glass door while partying with his friends.

This month, the Baltimore County police have investigated the death of another Towson University freshman who was believed to be drinking before she was found unconscious at an off-campus apartment.

Julia Margaret Ratnaraj, an 18-year-old student from Sewell, New Jersey was found unresponsive at around 11:30 a.m. due to an overdose and was rushed to the St. Joseph Medical Center where she was later declared dead.

Debrick, Crean and Ratnaraj were just few of the reported college freshmen who had died during the first few weeks of this school year in the United States putting to question how prepared educational institutions are to guiding them through the transitioning phase.

"For students who have lived in very structured situations and environments, going to a college campus when very suddenly they have this new kind of freedom and new choices to make, it can be pretty overwhelming," Indiana University Dean Pete Goldsmith stated citing that it will be a huge transition for support systems that are very much different.

Stressing that there is only so much a student can learn through very few hours of orientation, Goldsmith stated that it is best the parents have conversations with their children about drug and alcohol abuse before they even proceed to college so that they may be prepared for what to expect.

Tagscollege, freshman, death, awareness, US