The only school we visited for D17 where weather was a real issue was Alabama, where 98F was too much for my Alaska-raised child—but oddly enough, she saw about the same temperature at Kansas as a problem, sure, but not an overwhelming one.
(I also suspect that the rain at Miami of Ohio dampened—ha! I pun!—her enthusiasm for the school, but she claimed it didn’t have any actual effect.)
Two years ago we drove to Montreal to see McGill with our oldest. Arrived in Montreal where about a foot of snow had fallen early in the day and now it was above freezing and everything was slushy. Woke up the next morning for the tour and it was below zero (Fahrenheit) and those piles of slushy snow were piles of ice…and the wind was howling. We’re New Englanders but even this felt cold to me! Go on the tour of McGill…tour guide just rocked it. The McGill philosophy came through loud and clear…in spite of the bone chilling cold and ice.
The next day as we are leaving Montreal I ask my son what he thought. “Definitely my first choice.” My then HS Freshman says “what about me?” So I say what do you think? “I think I’ll be here in four years as well.”
D19 toured George Washington and Georgetown with my wife while I was in a meeting somewhere else.
Before the Georgetown tour even started, she texted me that she didn’t like the campus. It’s not something she could even put in to words.
I likened it to my experience with Realtors. The Realtor will take me to a house and I know within 10 seconds whether I hate the house or not. It’ll take longer to decide if I like it, but I"ll know immediately if I don’t like it.
That’s the way she was at Georgetown–an immediate dislike of it. She toured 3 colleges that week and that was the only one she immediately crossed off her list.
I did the opposite as far as weather goes. I took D to see some schools in the best weather possible, then if she likes them enough I will take her back during the bad weather. We live in FL and I really was hoping D might like she schools up north. One of the schools was our alma mater so we definitely wanted the kids to see it at its best, in the fall. I won’t do this for most schools but I wanted to give my school special treatment. 
@twoinanddone I agree with you about the weather. That’s what D19’s high school counselor said that many people ignore. Keep in mind that the counselor is in AZ. So many of her students only lived in AZ or lived there long enough that the only solid memory they have is a distinct lack of cold weather.
She’ll hear time and time again from former students who attended university in a colder place (and since she’s in AZ, every state is colder) is that the biggest adjustment for the student is the cold weather.
And not just weather, but also sunlight hours.
A good friend of mine and her husband are university faculty in Arizona. When their oldest went off to college in New England after having lived in Arizona his whole life, the family discovered that he had seasonal affective disorder, and had it badly. (He made it through college, but it was less fun than it probably could have been.)
@momtogkc Ha! I did the same thing. Didn’t want to take S19 to Grinnell in the winter. We actually took a day off school so he could see it last month in the beautiful fall weather. Worked like a charm. We live in the Midwest so S19 knows cold and snow. I just didn’t want cold weather to be a factor even if would just be subconsciously if we visited in the winter.
@jollymama we revisited CWRU on a President’s Day open house in February 2015 when the windchill was -15 degrees after a heavy snowstorm - which was unbearable for me.(lifelong Texan) S said he could live with that! 
Despite the weather the sidewalks were clear of snow and tours and event programs went on without any problems. They did cancel classes that day due to the windchill. S had previously visited on a nice October day before he had been accepted and we figured if he could handle that weather he was well suited for the winter climate in the mid-west. The hospitality gave us a nice warm feeling and that trip sealed the deal and he enrolled after returning home.
Contrast to our visit to Vanderbilt where the sidewalks were dangerously icy with no attempts to clear them. Despite our calling to determine if the open house was still on we arrived to an unorganized event with many programs cancelled. They didn’t have any coffee or water and basically said after an admissions talk that we were on our own. Was a waste of time for us.
I attended a professional meeting in New Orleans in August years ago. I prefer Boston or Montreal in February.
All this talk of weather…in 4 years it won’t snow in Montreal in the winter… #globalwarming
We were just at Tulane in New Orleans and I think it was the most humid place I’ve ever been outside of the Amazon. Despite that, S18 said he preferred it to Northeast cold and would be happy to attend.
“All this talk of weather…in 4 years it won’t snow in Montreal in the winter”
Actually isn’t the issue with climate change all about extremes? More snow, hotter summers, more violent storms?
Our Texan son toured the MN schools in January…and still chose one. Our strategy was to show him the schools at their worst and see if he was put off.
Being from PNW my D is not interested in heat/humidity. Part of the reason Tulane got punted from list. I had to explain there are few places in the US with temperate weather. Indian summer can be miserable in most places in the US if you don’t enjoy heat and humidity.
It depends on where you are. Here in Alaska, f’rex, our glaciers are receding not mainly because it’s getting warmer (which it is, and faster than at lower latitudes), but because that warmth is resulting in less snow—so while yes, the glaciers are melting slightly faster, the real issue is that they’re not being replenished at anything approaching historical rates.
If you think the humidity in New Orleans is bad in the summer, visit Rice or the University of Houston.
Weather is just something you get used to. I moved from Phoenix to Houston. When people were asking me if I liked the heat, I’d honestly answer “what heat?”
But it depends on your primary outdoor activity. I work in an office building and am only outdoors when I cycle. When I cycle, the wind is blowing, so the humidity is irrelevant to me. So to me, a 90 degree day with high humidity in Houston is much more tolerable than a dry 100 degree day in Phoenix. But D19 is mainly a runner, so the combination of heat and humidity affects her more than it does me. And I don’t have to walk outdoors between buildings like I would in a college.
D19 is thinking of visiting colleges in GA or SC in November. Having lived in TX or AZ most of my adult life, I’m worried that I’m going to be too cold.
@dfbdfb - to @doschicos point…the lack of rain in Alaska creates 4+ feet of rain in Texas (aka Harvey). There were 3 500 year storms in the gulf at the same time last month. Numerous parts of the US have had record rainfall and record dry spells this year. Roughly the same amount of water falling…just falling in new patterns and in the same places.
As for warmth in Montreal, it’s mid-October and in the Northeast we’ve had the air conditioning on several days this month…and the heater hasn’t been on since spring.
Apparently I phrased it clumsily: We haven’t really had much in the way of changes in things like the amount of water falling from the sky here, we’ve just had a shift in the mode in which it falls.
So Texas, it totally isn’t our fault! (This time.)
Yes, Hurricanes take water from the ocean and dump it inland. This year they were taking a lot more water from ocean than in the past, so more damage.
My oldest grew up in a ridiculously safe suburb of Phoenix and went to college at IIT in Chicago. Visited in February the year they had all the crazy snow. It was never above 20 degrees. She chose it anyway. She’s happy as a clam there and doesn’t complain about the weather but she and her sister, who has also left AZ for college, both have said the thing they really miss about Arizona weather is what they call “oven heat”—that feeling of having opened the oven door you get when you walk out of an air conditioned building in the middle of summer. They also miss the beautiful sunsets.
Can a college move up the list if it was already at the top? We just got back from a first college visit with S19 at Northern Arizona University. He had been there a couple of times for music-related school events and already liked it. I had never done more than drive through the campus. This time we did the info session and tour and he set up a couple of meetings with people in the music department. I have to say the campus is beautiful for a public university, especially in fall! There’s even great views from the parking garage. The info session was well-run, informative, and engaging, not boring or overly long. They fed us lunch in the dining hall. The honors college presentation by two current students was also informative and the students were well-spoken and interesting, and easy to talk to. We actually missed the campus tour due to a conflict with the meetings son set up, but both the music ed director and the music performance prof my son spoke to were knowledgeable about their programs and gave S a ton of helpful information and spent plenty of time talking to him about his options at NAU and what he needs to think about. We also saw an Operetta at the auditorium that evening and really enjoyed it. Strong set design, excellent cast and pit orchestra. It reflected well on the strengths of the music program.