My daughter is thinking about going to Oregon State, but I am afraid that she will not like the weather. I keep hearing stories of students from California becoming depressed and dropping out. Is the weather really that bad?
It isn’t Southern California. But then, hardly anyplace is. Here is a page with a summary of the weather:
https://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/oregon/corvallis
It gets more rain than Seattle, but has a few more sunny days than Seattle.
Oregon is a beautiful state with some of the best sunny days @calmomofone. That said there is a lot of rain of course. The environment is beautiful and school spirit is high. Oregon has a slower pace than California and people are less intense. For four years most Californians can take it. It is much like a school with heavy winters handles that snow. The activities and classes are all held indoors and people get used to just going out in it. I would not let that bother her at all. She can get extra studying or gym time during the rain and be ready for the football games, the parties, clubs and sports events outside when it isn’t raining. Classes and library time are unaffected. Now since she is looking at San Diego be aware that San Diego’s number of sunny days is 266 to Corvallis’s 159 sunny days on average. If you live in So Cal it may be harder than it is for a Northern California resident to adjust. Their retention rate is 83% (nationally it is 72) so most are happy to come back after freshman year
My daughter seriously considered OSU, UO, and Willamette. We live in the NorCal Central Valley, where we experience an average of about 269 sunny days a year. The average in Corvallis, Eugene and Salem was like 154. She kept saying she would be fine, she likes rain and mist, but I always had Seasonal Affective Disorder in the back of my mind. We asked about it at an OSU recruitment day, and they said that they have activities to keep the students active and staff they can talk to if climate related depression becomes an issue. Ultimately my daughter chose a school in another state - but UO was her first choice; money made the decision for us.
Which school did your daughter end up picking?
In the end she chose Boise State. Oregon State was a strong contender though; for a long time it was a strong front runner. We visited twice, and on the second visit she flipped to U of O. Both schools are outstanding from my perspective. I have relatives in Portland, so we have seen the Oregon rain many times, but on a crisp, clear day in early October when the leaves are in full fall splendor at OSU…wow. She also considered Willamette. I recommend a visit in the fall or winter. All three schools are pretty close together. We drove to Eugene, spent the night, toured UO in the morning, OSU in the afternoon, and then drove to Salem, spent the night there, toured Willamette in the morning, drove to Portland, toured Lewis and Clark in the afternoon, then crashed in Portland. We did it on Thanksgiving break junior year. All these schools draw heavily from California, so they are used to our questions.