We have our first two scheduled college tours this week. After an incredibly warm spring, we are in for some cold weather. Saturday is will be 36 degrees for the 90 minute outdoor walking tour.
Should we reschedule, or is it too short of notice?
If your kid is thinking about applying to a college with winter…this is a good way to see what it will be like…in miniature.
Don’t reschedule…GO.
Your bigger issue will be if you are flying to the east coast where some models have a major snow storm beginning Sunday afternoon and continuing into Monday.
Just bring a warm coat, gloves and dress for cold weather. Lots of folks tour these schools in the real winter!
My daughter and I toured colleges last year when the temp was closer to 3 degrees F. We survived.
I guess that’s up to you but 36 seems fine with a coat, hat, gloves, etc. I’d dress in such a way that removing the heavy layer while indoors (and putting it back on when heading back outside) is easy to do.
36 degrees hah poor you.
Living in Indiana for my whole life I can tell you that is short sleeve and shorts weather…
Then again, I guess I’m just use to being in -10 temperatures with -25 windchill.
Just bring a jacket or something and wear some warm pants.
Thanks for your reply! This school is an hour and twenty minutes from our house. Son grew up with this weather.
Well, if you live in warm climate and don’t own warm winter clothing, you might want to cancel. It would be difficult to find winter coats, hats, and gloves in the stores this late in the season, and even if you could find them, it would be hard to justify the expense if your child doesn’t choose that school. (In fact, even if your child does choose that school, it would be hard to justify the expense of buying the parent a winter coat since the parent probably would never go to that campus again in cold weather.)
Reading between the lines of the original post, I suspect that the family asking this question lives in a warm climate. Those who live in cold climates probably would have clothing that would make 90 minutes outdoors in 36-degree weather tolerable.
It could happen again while your kid is in college. Might as well buy the coat now.
Hey…no making fun of me 
Son is not excited to go on any tours, so I was hoping it would be enjoyable and a nice day outside.
I was being serious. If the family lives in Florida, say, and the student is applying mostly to Florida schools but this is his one visit to a school in the north, the cost of winter coats for the student and the accompanying parent could be a significant issue – and a total waste if the student eventually chooses a Florida school.
Well…if you live close your…this weather won’t be a big shocker.
Really…as noted…the weather is going to be like this when your kid attends…
Have a good tour.
The whole idea of campus tour is to feel how the school is like. My D walks on campus everyday during the winter for classes and it is often single digits here in Michigan in winter time (except for this year).
It’s not like you’re going to be walking outside in the cold for an hour. You’ll be going from heated bldg to heated bldg. And even the tour guide doesn’t want to freeze off his/her butt.
Thank you! We will leave it scheduled. As long as they are going in and out I’m sure it will be fine. Thanks again!
That’s shorts and t-shirt weather in Kansas - lol. Take advantage of the time.
I also think it’s good to go at a time when the weather is not the best. If people look in Florida they should go in August. 
I went to college in Fairbanks. Anything over freezing was a heat wave.
Last year, we were touring colleges the first week of spring break and it was in the 40s for most of the week but the last day, there was a snow storm. We still managed an info session at Johns Hopkins in the morning and a tour and info session at Princeton in the afternoon where we and 40 other people walked around the campus with 4 to 5 inches of fresh snow. It was beautiful but we were happy that we had packed our LL Bean snow boots.
I generally think it’s important to experience the weather at a college your child might attend. That said, I did deliberately schedule my cold weather-loving D’s visit at the only southern school she was visiting for January so that she would give it serious consideration and not overlook its many advantages because it was hot and humid. FWIW, I hate cold weather, but 36 degrees, while not a pleasant temperature IMO, is not terribly uncomfortable if you dress for it.
Then I’m really confused-do you guys not go outside in the winter? (I really have to learn how to use the emoticons on here so I can make the shruggy-face one).