CP Rankings for the USNWR Top 25 I: Weather

College Search & Selection
1

<p>CC provides information elsewhere that is drawn from College Pr owler. CP rates a number of elements of college life and I thought it might be interesting and fun to compare on various characteristics of colleges ranked in the USWNR Top 25 National Universities and the USNWR Top 25 LACs. </p>

<p>Given the fact that large swaths of the USA will, according to Punxsatawney Phil, experience six more weeks of winter, I thought it might be appropriate to begin with a comparison of the quality of weather at these colleges. How's the weather at your current or prospective school and how does that affect the nature of the student experience at your college? </p>

<p>Note: Not all colleges have data available (Caltech, UCB, and UCLA among the national universities and Smith, Bates, Macalester, USMA & USNA among the LACs). </p>

<p>Quality of Weather , College</p>

<p>A- , Stanford
B , Duke
B , U Virginia
B- , Princeton
B- , U Penn
B- , Columbia
B- , Johns Hopkins
B- , Rice
B- , Vanderbilt
B- , Georgetown
B+ , Emory
C , Dartmouth
C , Brown
C- , Harvard
C- , MIT
C- , Carnegie Mellon
C+ , Yale
C+ , Wash U
D , U Chicago
D , Northwestern
D , Cornell
D- , Notre Dame</p>

<p>Quality of Weather , LAC</p>

<p>A , Pomona
A , Harvey Mudd
A+ , Claremont McK
B- , Swarthmore
B- , Haverford
B- , Bryn Mawr
B+ , Davidson
C- , Williams
C- , Wellesley
C- , Middlebury
C- , Bowdoin
C- , Carleton
C- , Vassar
C- , Colby
C+ , Amherst
C+ , Wesleyan
C+ , Grinnell
C+ , W&L
C+ , Oberlin
D+ , Colgate
D+ , Hamilton</p>

2

<p>Somehow Dartmouth gets a C but Cornell gets a D. Okay.</p>

<p>As far as I am concerned there is only one college in the country where you can have a quick five minute sledding break steps away from the library:</p>

<p>YouTube</a> - sledding down libe slope</p>

3

<p>Good thing Michigan is #26. I'd give it an F in terms of weather.</p>

4

<p>Vanderbilt and Penn are both B-???? VASTLY different climates. You actually get to see SUN in Nashville. And Emory B+ and Vandy B- with almost the same climate??? This is truly a screwed up ranking.</p>

5

<p>And how on earth could Davidson be listed below the Philadelphia-area LACs in terms of weather? It gets a B+; they each got a B-.</p>

6

<p>I miss the sun, which makes Michigan weather hard on me, but I'm a four-seasons girl.</p>

<p>I don't understand why W&L gets a C+. It has a winter, but a mildish one. There's skiiing nearby.</p>

7

<p>A , Pomona
A , Harvey Mudd
A+ , Claremont McK</p>

<p>these are all in the same city yet Claremont gets A+</p>

8

<p>^^^ That is pretty funny. Maybe Claremont McK has more shade trees than Pomona and Harvey Mudd.</p>

9

<p>The general trend seems about right as a gross matter, but I find much to disagree with in the fine tuning, +- one place or so, in many instances.</p>

<p>Someone with more energy than I could compare to the weather rankings of related regions in Places Rated Almanac.</p>

10

<p>
[quote]
And Emory B+ and Vandy B- with almost the same climate??? This is truly a screwed up ranking.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Atlanta is NOT in the same climate as Nashville. Reasons why include last week's weather, where Nashville got dumped on by an ice storm and Atlanta saw a few hours of rain. Atlanta is located just south of most major snowstorms and other winter-related headaches.</p>

11

<p>^^ I said "almost" the same climate. Yes, that's somewhat true. Nashville has some colder weather. BUT- Nashville has less humid summers. Both are a far cry from Philadelphia.</p>

12

<p>Rice has the same weather as Penn and Georgetown... yeah, rite...it snows a lot in Texas.</p>

13

<p>Yes I agree, that's a bit strange that Penn would receive the same score as Vandy. Philly is miserable from my perspective.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Rice has the same weather as Penn and Georgetown... yeah, rite...it snows a lot in Texas.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Houston has to be one of the most miserable cities in the US to live in during the summer. It puts Atlanta and the rest of the Deep South to shame.</p>

14

<p>But the students don't tend to be there in the summer.</p>

15

<p>When I went thru the data that was available, a lot of National Universities ranked between 26-50 (including U Michigan and 12 others) had no data available. As a result, I decided to limit the comparison to the USNWR Top 25 schools. </p>

<p>On the matter of weather, clearly this is a personal preference issue. But for the B- ranking given to U Penn, Columbia, and Princeton, I guess it's all relevant. Those students could've been stuck in Hanover or Ithaca. Ugh! But, as Cayuga points out, if you like really cold weather and it's attractive to have sledding so close to the library for much of the school year, then Cornell probably has a lot of appeal. </p>

<p>I, too, was surprised by the low grades for a few schools in the Sunbelt (B- for Rice in Houston and B- for Vanderbilt in Nashville being the most obvious). They each open their baseball seasons in February. Probably can be a little chilly for the first few games, but at least you know that spring isn't far away. </p>

<p>Also, I wonder what Stanford did to only merit an A-. IMO, the weather around Palo Alto is pretty close to ideal. I guess the graders are scared of earthquakes.</p>

16

<p>
[quote]
But the students don't tend to be there in the summer.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Summer lasts until September 22 :)</p>

17

<p>


</p>

<p>Interesting. I think of Nashville as having extremely humid summers, not unlike Philly.</p>

<p>It's definitely a few degrees warmer in Nashville all year round but in summer that's not necessarily a blessing. And Nashville gets significantly more precipitation than Philly in the winter, spring and summer (though not in the fall). No doubt more of the winter precipitation in Philly is snow; in Nashville it's more likely to be cold rain, sleet, and ice. Take your pick. I don't find either particularly attractive. As for sun: according to NOAA, both Nashville and Philadelphia have sunshine 56% of the time (measured by maximum possible days rated "sunny" or "partly sunny"). That's lower than, say, Boston (58%), Minneapolis-St. Paul (58%), or Des Moines (59%), all with nearby colleges rated as having worse weather. </p>

<p>Consequently while their climates do differ in the particular, I would agree with the rating: both Nashville and Philadelphia are a B - (at best).</p>

18

<p>Weather in Iowa, and Minnesota for gosh sakes, better than Chicago ?????</p>

19

<p>^ ^ I've lived in both Chicago and Minnesota. I love Chicago for many reasons but weather will never be one of them. It's much grayer and drearier in Chicago in the winter, very depressing; Minnesota's cold in winter but generally sunny, much easier to get through. It's also more humid in Chicago which means that while the thermometer might read a few degrees lower in Minnesota it often feels much colder in Chicago. The wind in Chicago---"the Hawk" as they used to call it on the South Side--can be wicked, which combined with cold and damp is a real killer. And I'm quite certain that Chicago gets more snowfall overall and more severe winter storms than Mpls-St. Paul. So yes, I'd say the weather is worse in Chicago than in the Twin Cities. I'd never urge anyone to move to Minnesota for the weather (C -) but Chicago's worse (D).</p>

20

<p>I love Nashville's climate. I have lived in Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas and several other places. Nashville is great. Yes, we have some wet winter weather, but until this year, it has been one day at a time maybe 3 times a winter. Summer of 2007 was quite hot- 2008 was a dream. Spring and fall are just perfect. We have 4 seasons, but none are bad. Yesterday it was 63 degrees and sunny. Philadelphia has some pretty days, but they are not as frequent. I feel that it rains a LOT more in Philadelphia. I don't care what NOAA says.<br>
Chicago did me in. I couldn't get to Texas fast enough! (then I got too hot after about 25 years...:) )</p>