PSA:Have your kid go outside now to see if they really want a cold, northern college

[Anonymous]

I’m currently in TX (obligatory visit to ILs) and even they aren’t immune from this cold

My kid is currently obsessed with a school on Michigan’s UP. I am not against it, but we definitely need to get her much better winter gear.

[Anonymous]

Someone mentioned nc in winter. Yeah, I was at my boyfriend’s house in the mountains during the blizzard of 1996. They got Greensboro stations and it was reported that they had only 32 snowplows for the whole city. No wonder they were so poorly prepared!

Our semester start just a little west of Greensboro was delayed by a couple days to allow for the clean up on the highways

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet the the troll who started this thread didn’t expect so many pro-winter responses.

+1. I have the Oberlin I’d home ahead of the blizzard. My initial concern with north wasn’t snow or cold. It’s the dark. I have seasonal affective disorder and moving 250 miles north to the DMV did a number on me the first couple of years. It would be hard for me to live north of the DMV. But that’s me. DS is fine. DD had some depression issues during fall of 2021/ distance learning pushed back against northern schools. I think she did the right thing.

Truth. I have many friends from Alaska, and no one talks about the cold bothering them, it's the dark. FWIW, they also think DC is cold -- it's the humidity and wind. In inland Alaska, it's generally pretty still and dry when it's super cold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this is silly.

If cold weather was so awful, no one would live and spend so much to live in Switzerland

The cold isn’t an issue - it’s how grimey it is.

The cold at Dartmouth hits different than the cold at Chicago.

Which feels colder Dartmouth or Chicago?

[Anonymous]

2 kids in college in New England, both embrace the cold, the skiing, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I skated on Lake Carnegie at Princeton. Great memory!

Some great memories doesn't make up for lot of inconsistencies for four years. People on warmer campuses make great memories too. Humans have nostalgia issue. We use rosy eyed glasses to look back and block bad memories.

[Anonymous]

So much DRAMA over cold weather. The students walk to class, they are not spending the day outside. Are you aware there are workers who have machinery to clean the walkways?

FYI: I live in Pittsburgh and it is currently -2, with a wind chill of -25. Maybe Pitt shouldn’t be your child’s safety?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tonight and tomorrow will give DMV high school kids a good way to see if they really would like a northern school. At my cold Ivy it was often -5 when it was time to get up to trudge to class. Everyone wore huge parkas and big boots when going out “dressed up” on the weekends. It’s not for everyone.

my kids thrive in cold weather and tolerate very cold weather. They wilt in the heat. So, they went to colder climates than DC and loved it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet the the troll who started this thread didn’t expect so many pro-winter responses.

+1. I have the Oberlin I’d home ahead of the blizzard. My initial concern with north wasn’t snow or cold. It’s the dark. I have seasonal affective disorder and moving 250 miles north to the DMV did a number on me the first couple of years. It would be hard for me to live north of the DMV. But that’s me. DS is fine. DD had some depression issues during fall of 2021/ distance learning pushed back against northern schools. I think she did the right thing.

Truth. I have many friends from Alaska, and no one talks about the cold bothering them, it's the dark. FWIW, they also think DC is cold -- it's the humidity and wind. In inland Alaska, it's generally pretty still and dry when it's super cold.

This is a good point! The cold/winter experience varies based on way more than just the temperature. I grew up outside of Buffalo, NY where there's tons of lake effect snow. It's cold like it currently is in the DMV (which is not really cold in the grand scheme of things and feels significantly warmer if you're in a house/region/clothes designed for it), but with never-ending snow. I figured out why people found winter depressing when I moved to Boston -- it was 10-15 degrees warmers and only snowed during blizzards. Where I grew up, even though the sun was down 16 hours a day, it was never really *dark* because there was always a fresh fall of snow on everything and the world just glittered. Sunny days were almost too bright; clouds or moonlight on the snow was perfect. Boston, on the other hand, had similarly short days but without snow and it was horrible and grimy and miserable. You really can't enitrely extrapolate from even just temperature/latitude.

[Anonymous]

This really is an issue of individual preference. Nevertheless, younger people seem to be able to handle colder weather than do older folks.

For me, it would depend upon several factors as to whether or not I could handle a cold weather environment. What activities beyond drinking beer in a crowded frat basement are available to students. Some small rural, isolated cold weather schools offer few options.

[Anonymous]

LOL people actually live there, not just 4 years o college.

[Anonymous]

The particulars about any specific school matters regarding whether or not severe cold weather would be a determining factor.

Not sure that I could handle 2,000 student Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota even though it offers outstanding academics, yet I would have no difficulty attending college in cold weather locations such as Boston, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Madison, Ithaca, or Burlington, Vermont due to the student body size and the variety of numerous activities available in these non-isolated areas.

The difficulty for me would arise concerning the realities of dream schools like Middlebury College, Dartmouth College, Bowdoin College, Williams College, etc., which offer outstanding academics in a small community of high achievers, yet are located in rural, cold-weather, fairly isolated areas. Since I like to snow ski, the answer if offered an opportunity to attend any of these dream schools would be an easy yes, but I could probably not handle attending Bates, Kenyon, Carleton, unless I was a two-sport college athlete as the down time non-academic aspects are too limited and unattractive for my individual personality.

So long as one is aware of the realities of attending a small, rural, isolated, cold weather school, it is a matter of individual preference. Many are persuaded by generous financial aid or perceived prestige despite known shortcomings--and that is just part of life. Realities and decisions regarding one's options often override individual preferences. In short, specifics matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LOL people actually live there, not just 4 years o college.

Of course, but the issue raised in this thread is adaptability during one's college years in light of the multitude of options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet the the troll who started this thread didn’t expect so many pro-winter responses.

Read my post again- I didn’t say cold was bad — I just think students should get a chance to try it out and often people don’t tour these colleges in the middle of winter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this is silly.

If cold weather was so awful, no one would live and spend so much to live in Switzerland

The cold isn’t an issue - it’s how grimey it is.

The cold at Dartmouth hits different than the cold at Chicago.

My mother moved down from Canada because she hate, hate, hated the cold. It happens.