WARNING before you send your child to an upper Midwest cold weather college

[Anonymous]

This below was just published by a Michigan statewide outlet. The freezing weather and sunless skies cause acute seasonal depression. Students are on campus from September to April. The weather in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio is truly miserable and at its worst when kids are on campus. How bad it is?

How dreary is Michigan? Only 5 minutes of sunshine this month

Welcome to another dreary day in Michigan. The skies are overcast. The snow-covered ground matches the blah, boringly hazy color of the sky.

Is it morning or afternoon? Who can even tell?

Much of Michigan has gotten minimal daily sunshine recently, but we hadn’t realized how far down the sun tally we’d fallen until the National Weather Service reminded us with a dim little factoid they posted on social media late yesterday.

Brace yourself:

“In the first 5 days of January, we have recorded 5 minutes of sunshine in southeast Grand Rapids. Our last half-sunny day was December 28. Our last mostly sunny day? A month ago, December 4.”

https://www.mlive.com/news/2023/01/how-dreary-is-michigan-grand-rapids-has-had-5-minutes-of-sunshine-this-month.html

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I grew up in Michigan and had a great experience at a college there that I think would be a nice fit for my kid. But every time I think of suggesting it as a school to consider, I think about the long, gray winters and start researching similar colleges in other states. The thought of living through that weather is very unappealing, although I didn't know better at the time.

[Anonymous]

My college age dd goes to college at one of these schools. She was seeing a therapist and one of the suggestions was to get a UV light to use in her dorm room to help fight her seasonal depression. She has narrowed down her grad school choices to Florida, Texas and San Diego.

[Anonymous]

Michigan hater is back.

[Anonymous]

Reminds me of when we lived in Scotland, land of rain and lush atmospheric hills. My mother started marking off the days of sunshine on the calendar. One month in winter we did not receive ANY. For the entire month. While I love our years in Scotland, she became quite depressed.

So it depends on the individual, OP. You don't really know how you'll react until you experience it. I think it matters to be outside no matter what. I was outside all the time as a kid, and my mother was inside a lot, because she hated the rain. The amount of light you get outside, even when the sun isn't shining, is still important.

[Anonymous]

I grew up near Minneapolis and went to school at Michigan. Minnesota is way colder but at least it gets sunny. Michigan was so grey. It was hard to handle at times, for me. But, I think there are lots of other places where this is also the case like the Pacific Northwest. DC winters are also cloudier than I prefer.

[Anonymous]

OMG, how have students survived all these years? Did they all get depressed and commit suicide?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This below was just published by a Michigan statewide outlet. The freezing weather and sunless skies cause acute seasonal depression. Students are on campus from September to April. The weather in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio is truly miserable and at its worst when kids are on campus. How bad it is?

How dreary is Michigan? Only 5 minutes of sunshine this month

Welcome to another dreary day in Michigan. The skies are overcast. The snow-covered ground matches the blah, boringly hazy color of the sky.

Is it morning or afternoon? Who can even tell?

Much of Michigan has gotten minimal daily sunshine recently, but we hadn’t realized how far down the sun tally we’d fallen until the National Weather Service reminded us with a dim little factoid they posted on social media late yesterday.

Brace yourself:

“In the first 5 days of January, we have recorded 5 minutes of sunshine in southeast Grand Rapids. Our last half-sunny day was December 28. Our last mostly sunny day? A month ago, December 4.”

https://www.mlive.com/news/2023/01/how-dreary-is-michigan-grand-rapids-has-had-5-minutes-of-sunshine-this-month.html

This is why I made my DS visit a bunch of cold weather schools during a February break. They all seem awesome in May or September, but the vast majority of your school year will involve cold, dreary weather. Intuitively, kids know, but it's another thing to actually be there in person during the depths of winter.

[Anonymous]

SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is real.

Had a relative who spent 5 years working for Boeing in Seattle. Couldn't deal with the overcast, rainy weather. Quit & moved to a state with lots of sunshine.

Gloomy, overcast, cold weather can be an issue in upstate New York and in much of the state of Maine.

Helps if one is active in outdoor activities such as ice skating, snowskiing, or igloo building.

People appear happier and more fit in warm weather areas.

But, when I was college-age, I just loved brisk, cold weather.

[Anonymous]

My kid is at Cornell--can't get much worse than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OMG, how have students survived all these years? Did they all get depressed and commit suicide?

I think that this thread is not about survival, but about quality of life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at Cornell--can't get much worse than that.

Lived there too. At least Ithaca IS gorges

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at Cornell--can't get much worse than that.

There is an engineering in extreme upstate New York that is much more isolated than Cornell. Plus, Cornell has a lot of natural beauty and a nice college town (Ithaca).

[Anonymous]

I went to upstate NY for college and the effect is real. It is tough to quantify, and given that most teenagers are simply happy to be in college, tough to feel it happening. But I do think it is real. If it is sunny, the cold can be OK - Madison and Boulder especially get some decent sunshine in the winter. Dark and cold and gray = bad combo for some people.

[Anonymous]

Oh MY. People LIVE there. Precious college kids will be fine.

If someone has SAD they have SAD.