Comment by gambiting

Poland here. It's exactly the same as you described - if there is someone speaking at the beginning of the year it's mostly in the tone of "We have accepted 300 students for this course this year. Less than 100 makes it to the second year and usually less than 20 finish it. That means you have to work really hard to stay here and you can fail at any moment". This is what is usually said. Does it help? Of course not. Would it be any better if the speech was more cheerful? I believe so - most students are going to experience a reality crash within a first 2 weeks anyway,so a glimmer of hope at the beginning would not hurt.