Early Monday morning, two students at Boston-area colleges died in unrelated incidents-an MIT sophomore was found dead in her dorm room and a Boston University (B.U.) sophomore fell to his death while attempting a prank.

Julie M. Carpenter, a 20-year-old pre-med at MIT, was found at 2:30 a.m. on the floor of her Random Hall dorm room by her roommate. The results of an autopsy have not yet been released and the cause of death is still unknown. However, authorities said they found no evidence of suicide and have ruled out foul play.

Carpenter had been at a birthday party the night before.

Carpenter's first-year adviser said he does not believe that she took her own life.

"I don't believe it was suicide because she had planned ahead," said Shuguang Zhang, associate director at MIT's Center for Biomedical Engineering. "She just won an award to do research in my lab this summer and to be a mentor for a French student. She had also planned as far as the MCATs next year."

Carpenter, a chemical engineering major, had worked in Zhang's small, 10-person laboratory. Zhang said she had the ability to "light up the lab for everybody."

Less than two hours after Carpenter's body was discovered, across the Charles River, Boston paramedics pronounced the death of B.U. sophomore Benjamin Johnson.

Johnson, a student in the College of Arts and Sciences, fell more than 30 feet from a fire escape of B.U.'s College of Communications building.