I grew up in Ohio and New York and went to college in Dallas (and have been in TX ever since). I still hate the heat, but I had fun, learned to love air conditioning, and vacation in cooler climates.
S17 grew up in TX, heat and humidity all the time, thought nothing of it. Learned to snowboard and loved the cold and snow. He didn’t have a weather requirement. He ended up in Kansas and it loving the weather even when it is cold and snowing. He texted me the first day of school “It is crazy icy here!” then still went to the basketball game that night!
If your kid will be miserable in a climate they will let you know.
I grew up in Texas and hated the heat. I am VERY happy to live in Maine!
I’m on a cruise now. When I tell people I love living in Maine, they usually wrinkle up their noses and say, “Really??” I tell them, “Yeah,I guess I should tell people how horrible it is so no more people will move there!”
We’re from SoCal and my son chose to attend school in Ithaca, NY. It was his choice and we cautioned him that the winters will be long but 4 years of your life is short and the NE experience would be good. Now in his third year, he appreciates both coasts but will likely head back to CA after graduation. This past winter break I think gave him a new appreciation for year round mild and sunny weather. It’s a lifestyle and a personal choice. I also think SAD affected him a lot despite taking extra vitamin D.
Our Northern California-raised son went to college in northern Ohio. I grew up in Ohio and wondered what he’d think of the weather there, but he never seemed to have a problem with it. He did move back to California after he graduated, though.
"This isn’t Saskatoon or Fairbanks. "
lol! I guess I should be grateful that DS got a taste of really cold weather as he spent his first year as a post Doc in Fairbanks, before moving in 2018 to Lansing, Mi. He even sold the Canadian Goose coat I bought for him when he got to Michigan [ grrr…] as he said did not wear it in Alaska. Guess He’ll find out if that was a good idea or not…
Just wants to prove he’s a Sourdough, despite being raised in Calif [I guess.]
I grew up in an area of the northeast that had a good variation of weather. We’d have sub-zero temperatures during a portion of the winter, and usually a few storms severe enough to knock down trees, knock out power, and damage structures. Sometimes it would take more than a day before power was restored. During the summer, there would be some days with >100F degree temperatures. Both my house and my high school did not have A/C. When choosing colleges, I didn’t put much weight in to weather. I considered colleges in areas of the northeast with more severe weather than my area, as well as areas of CA with extremely mild weather However, after living in CA and seeing how much more I enjoyed living in a mild climate, climate become much more of an important consideration for where I’d like to work and live after graduation. I still live in CA today and think I would have a lot of trouble adjusting to the temperature extremes of a northeast climate again.
I’ve met quite a few people who grew up in my area of southern, coastal CA, and intentionally chose to go out of state for college because they wanted to experience the 4 seasons. The ones that still live in CA almost always say something to the effect of experiencing more extreme weather was less pleasant than they expected, which relates to why they returned back after graduating.
Whether weather/climate should be an important consideration depends on personal values. One needs to consider both what is common and what is rare. For example, -50F wind chill night in some areas of the midwest may happen next week, but that isn’t typical. A student is likely to not experience any days that cold throughout his time in college. One consideration is whether you are okay with an extremely small, but non-zero chance of a -50F wind chill night. And a separate consideration is if you have a problem with the more typical highs in the 30s throughout the winter with several significant snowstorms and a lot of snow on the ground, which will happen every winter.
Similarly if living in most areas of coastal CA, there is an extremely small, but non-zero chance of an earthquake large enough damage some nearby structures or a fire near enough to smell smoke, but you are unlikely to experience either while in college. A separate consideration is if you have a problem with the chance of a tremor that is significant enough to feel or hearing about a significant fire somewhere else in the state on the news, which is far more common.
I attended college in the Bay Area. During my 4 years in college, there were no fires near enough to smell smoke. During my years living in a well populated area of southern coastal CA since graduating, there has only been one fire near enough to smell smoke. Of course some areas of CA are more prone to fire than others. It may seem like there are always big fires in CA on the news, but most are in wooded areas, well away from the bulk of the population. It’s a big state.
lol, smelling smoke is not normal for most of California. Still get a kick out of our Midwest friends and family that call when something happens at the other end of the state and ask if we are ok. They have no concept of how big California is. We try to tell them things like, “That would be like us being concerned for you when Katrina hit New Orleans.” And we tell them that California is over 800 miles long, which just can’t register it seems.
But to OPs comment, kids adapt for sure, but I know plenty of kids that had no interest in dealing with a cold/humid or whatever climate so chose another school, and some that transferred back to CA (one from Chicago - too cold, one from south - humidity and lack of diversity issues at her school, one from Texas - weather and town). And I’m sure the opposite happens plenty too. Everyone is entitled to their own criteria - weather is certainly an aspect to put in a pos/neg column when looking at schools.
In Orange County, we could smell smoke from fires in the national forest, 70+ miles away. Ash would collect on our cars. That was 20 years ago. And you don’t initially know where that smoke is coming from, your neighborhood or an hour away.
And that type of fire is a rare event. It was the deadliest fire in CA history by a margin of more than 2 to 1. It’s also one of the only especially large fires that has occurred in Butte county. It’s not the norm, even if it did happen recently. Just as the possible -50F wind chill temps in portions of the areas of the Midwest next week are not the norm, even if recent.
This is a link about smog, not fires. Smog and smoke are not the same thing. You can have significant smog, without smelling smoke and vice versa. Some of the larger CA metropolitan areas do tend to have a good amount of air pollution. However, the primary reason for this pollution is not fires.
D1 went to college in southern California. It got very hot in the area but the school basically shut down from June to August. Graduation was in late April. There was one earthquake large enough to cause effects she could feel; she was at Disneyland and the power went out.
D2 went to college in Minnesota. Cold and snow were common in the winters but didn’t interfere with schooling generally. However, during her sophomore year, three classmates were killed in a car accident. They were driving to the Minneapolis airport the day after a snowstorm and their car slid into the path of a truck. One of the young men in the car survived, as did the driver of the truck. It was a very tragic event and traumatic for nearly everyone at the school.
D2 is now in graduate school near San Francisco. The Camp Fire was 200 miles away but smoke reached the campus and was very bothersome for my daughter and others.