First year is still Pass/Fail, and most classes are graded on the curve, plus you get an extra GPA point for all classes (A = 5.0 rather than 4.0).
My son is in his final year at MIT, and was just accepted into the Masters of Engineering program. His first year was a shock, when he went from being the "smartest" kid in high school, to just one "kinda" smart kid among thousands.
MIT does all it can (legally) to keep parents informed and to provide help & counseling for the students. I agree with a previous comment, the suicide is the fault of the person who commits it, but we just can't seem to accept personal responsibility in this society anymore.
That's always been MIT's great strength and challenge. I went through the same thing in the late sixties, suddenly finding myself surrounded by classmates who were all tops in their high school classes (and in many cases were singular geniuses). That level of competition and association is in large measure the explanation as to why MIT (and similar schools) provides such a good education.
But it is also a psychological shock, and many students have difficulty dealing with it. Especially since a lot of MIT students are introverted and lack social skills, having concentrated and excelled at academics instead. It probably didn't help that Elizabeth Shin was female. I don't know what the current statistics are, but women have historically constituted a small percentage of MIT's student population, which creates an additional dimension of pressures.
It's very sad that Elizabeth Shin committed suicide, but trying to blame MIT is absurd. If they had wanted a psychologically safe and unchallenging environment for their daughter, her parents should have sent Elizabeth to the local community college.