<p>Cornell was on my college list until a couple of my friends reminded me of Ithaca's weather. Is it really unbearably cold?</p>
<p>If any of you are attending / have attended Cornell, could you please tell if attending is worth living among snow for most of the year?</p>
<p>Thanks. ;)</p>
<p>Let me list you universities that have equally cold winters as Cornell (give or take 6 or 7 degrees):</p>
<p>Amherst College
Bates College
Bowdoin College
Brown University
Carleton College
Colby College
Colgate College
Columbia University
Dartmouth College
Harvard University
Grinnell College
Haverford College
Macalester College
Masschusetts Institute of Technology
Middlebury College
New York University
Northwestern University
Oberlin College
Princeton University
Swarthmore College
University of Chicago
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Pennsylvania
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Vassar College
Wesleyan University
Williams College
Yale University</p>
<p>In other words, if you want to avoid the cold, you are going to have to limit yourself to few universities. Schools like:</p>
<p>California Institute of Technology
Claremont McKenna College
Harvey Mudd College
Pomona College
Rice University
Stanford University
University of California-Berkeley
University of California-Los Angeles
University of Texas-Austin</p>
<p>And some schools are neither here nor there. They can have cold winters, but not frigid.</p>
<p>Davidson College
Duke University
Emory University
Georgetown University
Johns Hopkins University
Reed College
University of Virginia
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Vanderbilt University</p>
<p>interesting list Alexandre.</p>
<p>It is a very simplified list. I left out so many schools...but you get the picture.</p>
<p>I disagree- the Philadelphia latitude schools are not nearly as cold as Cornell, Williams et al. However, they get more nasty, cold rain. Also- I would consider Emory as a pretty mild climate. North of NY you start talking C O L D.</p>
<p>I would have to say that the winter in Providence is not as cold as in Ithaca. Were pretty much on the snow line most of the time here. I also have a good friend at Cornell, and when I talk to him, it is generally a fair amount colder there. They get a lot more snow too!</p>
<p>i think ithaca is alot colder than nyc</p>
<p>Momofwildchild, you are quite correct. NYC, Phili and Princeton are indeed warmer than Ithaca, but they still have significantly cold winters. If one does not like cold winters, those cities will still be considered inadequate.</p>
<p>James, either you have a higher threshhold to cold or your friend has a lower threshhold, but as a matter of record, Providence has almost as much snowfall as Ithaca and on average, Ithaca, according to recorded averages, is only 5-7 degrees cooler than Providence. So no Cornell is not much snowier than Brown, and it is not a "fair amount colder". It is slightly cooler and about as snowy.</p>
<p>Have you ever noticed that the stability of the world's national governments as well as their relative socioeconomic strength tend to increase the farther they are from the equator? It's my theory that mild weather tends to make basic creature comforts too easily attainable so that there's little incentive to work at long-term goals, while daunting weather requires foresight, strategy and effort (and minimizes attractive excuses for detouring from a work plan). Survival in a three-month growing season is far more intellectually challenging than in a twelve-month growing season. Just think of crummy weather as a built-in honors curriculum.</p>
<p>Cornell winters can be cold and snowy but they are beautiful. True, many grow weary of winter but a fresh snow is always beautiful. The winter view from campus is very nice of Cayuga Lake and across the valley. Bring a down jacket with a hood and Gortex boots. Dress in layers. Winter means Cornell hockey season. Learn to ski. The campus is made for sledding. There is an active art, music, and theater scene in Ithaca - indoor activities. Winter is surrounded by pretty fall and spring. I happen to like winter; it is what you make of it.</p>
<p>You have to include how far are you from the ocean. NY/Phila/Princeton even Providence and Boston have the moderating effect of the Atlantic.</p>
<p>Bad as Ithaca's winters are I think places like Chicago, Iowa, Wisconsin are worse.</p>
<p>We just drove back from FL and my d commented how she couldn't live with the hot & humid temps down there (and actually everywhere this past week along the east coast). She will be attending RIT and her bf will be in Ithaca so perhaps she was just justifying her decision to go north.</p>
<p>I think people are comfortable with what they know and don't realize they will get used to the new climate. I went to school in ME for a yr and learned to dress appropriately. The wind is the hardest to deal with so I agree that places like Chicago might be worse. Then again, I'm sure there are ways to deal.</p>
<p>I don't know 2331, I lived in Ithaca and Ann Arbor, they were roughly the same.</p>
<p>I don't know what's going on there recently, weather-wise. But when I was there, usually what happened is it would start snowing right during finals week. And then when we got back from break there'd be lots of snow on the ground. But some of the worst weather occurred during intersession when we weren't there.</p>
<p>I don't think Ithaca is in the same snow-belt of some fairly nearby places, like Rochester.</p>
<p>It snows, and it's cold in the winter months. It snowed a lot more, and was a lot colder, for longer, when I lived in Chicago. The Ithaca winters I experienced were nothing compared to Chicago, at that time.</p>
<p>It also rained a lot in Ithaca when I was there.</p>
<p>But:</p>
<p>you wake up in the morning and you breathe the fresh air. The air is so clear I'd actually feel it in my lungs. </p>
<p>You walk to campus over bridges crossing glacial gorges filled with trees and streams,incredible scenery. You feel uplifted from the physical beauty of it all every day, just walking to class.</p>
<p>The first week or two of October the trees turn colors, and for a couple of months around there it is about the most beautiful place I've ever lived.</p>
<p>If there was some way I could earn a living there, I would move to Ithaca in a flash. Despite the fact that it has some real winters.</p>
<p>LIke others have said, the winters there are of the same order as a lot of other places in the Northeast. Probably most of the northeast.</p>
<p>I live here <a href="http://weather.yahoo.com/climo/USMN0841_f.html%5B/url%5D">http://weather.yahoo.com/climo/USMN0841_f.html</a>
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota</p>
<p>Moving here, <a href="http://weather.yahoo.com/climo/USMN0657_f.html%5B/url%5D">http://weather.yahoo.com/climo/USMN0657_f.html</a>
Saint Cloud, Minnesota next year.</p>
<p>I'm quite used to "cold" weather.</p>
<p>Cold is no worse than Seattle's dark and rainy winter. At least the sun comes out and a warm coat makes life fine.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the input!</p>
<p>I loved Cornell, the winters are cold and snowy, the spring is like Heaven arriving. One of the things I noticed about myself was that I was driven into the libraries as the winter came on and so fall semesters were a good time to take courses that were more difficult, laden with late papers, projects or heavily weighted final exams. The cold and dark is an incentive to stay in and study. Spring meant everyone was loosing their heavy coats and tee shirts and shorts were everywhere out in the quad....a hard time for me to head into the library....so I picked classes that spread their work out more through the semester for the spring and I tried to accomplish a lot during the March snow and showers.</p>
<p>I loved Cornell, they worked me harder than I ever worked before. For drivers not from the Northern part of the climate here are a few suggestions: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Don't drive or ride with people who weren't taught to drive in the snow. It is sad watching Texans spining their wheels on ice as they slide backwards down Buffalo Street.</p></li>
<li><p>If you must drive, early in winter when there is a small amount of ice on the ground go to a large vacant parking lot and practice skidding and pulling out of skids (steer your wheel into the direction you are sliding and then turn out...do not slam on the brakes but do pump the breaks)</p></li>
<li><p>Dust the snow off your clothes before you go inside and it melts.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>There are other great schools out there, but the California UCs -Cal, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Davis et al. are hard to get into from out of state, Stanford, and the Universities in Texas and Virginia might be a fit for you.</p>