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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Chicago and can attest that it absolutely has been a grey, dreary winter. Very little snow outside of one dramatic snowstorm.

But, I also think making college decisions based on the weather is ridiculous.

Taking your mental health seriously is not ridiculous. The upper Midwest is a depressing sunless place, especially during the school year.

You are obsessed and just can’t stop! The “upper Midwest” has some of the most beautiful weather in the country in the summer and fall, way better than in Northern Virginia. It is hardly a “sunless place.” You are just making stuff up to support your wacky narrative now. Next you will be bleating about how the upper Midwest is landlocked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Chicago and can attest that it absolutely has been a grey, dreary winter. Very little snow outside of one dramatic snowstorm.

But, I also think making college decisions based on the weather is ridiculous.

Taking your mental health seriously is not ridiculous. The upper Midwest is a depressing sunless place, especially during the school year.

Living in Northern Virginia has clearly done wonders for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:According to new UNC research…

2022’s fastest growing major cities are on the coasts, Mountain West, and Sun Belt.

The most dying cities include the northern Rust Belt’s Detroit, Milwaukee, Buffalo, and Cleveland.

https://kenaninstitute.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/american-growth-project-10172022r.pdf

What schools in this conversation are in Detroit, Milwaukee, Buffalo, or Cleveland?

Those are the biggest cities in the upper Midwest. They’re all dying because they’re crummy places to live. If you’re an UMC teen, why go to college in a region that’s cold and dying? Please distill the point? There is no point. You’re just biased because you’re from there or stuck there.

Why would it matter to a kid attending Michigan that Michigan the state is not doing well? An OOS student was never planning to live there after graduation, anyway. I mean, New Haven is a pit and no one dreams of starting their lives in Connecticut after graduation, but that doesn't seemed to have hurt Yale. Heck, out of all the Ivies, only Harvard and Columbia are located in places where graduates of those schools might want to stay after they get their degree.

Many top universities aren't really in a place where people want to stay after graduation. It's not really relevant to the students, though, as they tend to scatter all over the country and world after they graduate.

The corollary to the question of why would you want to go to a school in a region where cities are cold and allegedly "dying," is why would you want to go to a school in a region where it's oppressively hot and humid and that contains some of the VERY worst cities in which to live and start a career?

Memphis TN: 145th worst city (out of 150) in which to live
Miami FL: 137th worst city
New Orleans: 136th worst city
Mobile AL: 130th worst city
Montgomery AL: 125th worst city
Jackson MS: 121st worst city

https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/best-places-to-live

Sure, several of the Rust Belt cities are low-ranked as well, but almost none as low as those listed above. And yes, some Southern cities are ranked high, but so are some cold weather college towns: Ann Arbor, MI = #11, Madison, WI = #17

[Anonymous]

I actually think the dreary weather was good for me. Didn't want to go out and party during the winter so we stayed in and studied more.

[Anonymous]

DC, who grew up in NoVA, went to undergrad in Wisconsin and grad school in Florida. Took a job in Wisconsin after grad school.

[Anonymous]

Everyone with money in the Midwest has a second home in Florida to flee the winter cold. It makes you depressed and unhinged if you only get 5 minutes of sunlight a month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone with money in the Midwest has a second home in Florida to flee the winter cold. It makes you depressed and unhinged if you only get 5 minutes of sunlight a month.

I don’t know how much sunlight you get a month but you’re definitely unhinged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone with money in the Midwest has a second home in Florida to flee the winter cold. It makes you depressed and unhinged if you only get 5 minutes of sunlight a month.

Actually more people have lake cabins in Northern Wisconsin. Go figure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone with money in the Midwest has a second home in Florida to flee the winter cold. It makes you depressed and unhinged if you only get 5 minutes of sunlight a month.

I don’t know how much sunlight you get a month but you’re definitely unhinged.

+ a million

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone with money in the Midwest has a second home in Florida to flee the winter cold. It makes you depressed and unhinged if you only get 5 minutes of sunlight a month.

I don’t know how much sunlight you get a month but you’re definitely unhinged.

+ a million

Just another DCUM wackadoodle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many times do we have to talk about Michigan weather?

Are you really going to say Cal, UCLA, and USC are better this week? I think not.

NP here. I've been on campus at UCLA all week; it's just been raining, nothing drastic. It'll be sunny again soon. If it rains more than once or twice a year in LA, it's an anomaly! No way you can compare CA weather to the midwest (I live in CA now and grew up in Chicago). I LOVE Chicago but visit every year in the summer or fall, when it is one of the best cities in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's fascinating that the Rust Belt lifers can't get it through their thick skulls that Ivy League colleges are unique. And Notre Dame is unique. On the other hand, gigantic over-enrolled Big Ten colleges are not unique. That same cattle call binge drinking undergrad experience is available in every state college in the union. You don't have to be depressed and freeze your ass off all year in Indiana or Michigan to be in an 800 student bio lecture and root for a football team.

...a Notre Dame grad? Color me shocked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Chicago and can attest that it absolutely has been a grey, dreary winter. Very little snow outside of one dramatic snowstorm.

But, I also think making college decisions based on the weather is ridiculous.

Taking your mental health seriously is not ridiculous. The upper Midwest is a depressing sunless place, especially during the school year.

So is the Northeast and the Northwest... DC winters are no walk in the park either.

[Anonymous]

This is one of the reasons my sister agreed to letting my niece attend Miami. Anything to help with depression

[Anonymous]

Most college kids do not care. They sleep to noon whenever possible and spend most of their days indoors studying or in class/library and parties in the evening. If your kid can’t hack college bc it is cold and doesn’t have enough sunshine that is just an excuse for poor adaption and resiliency. They’d find another problem somewhere else