Find Me a College: good weather and prestigious, NOT california?

FSU might be worth considering.

@MotherOfDragons @londondad – I’m also concerned about the claim of UM “frontloading” scholarships. My son received $19k/yr Presidential & it’s for 4 years as long as GPA is kept up. So, what is frontloaded? The other smaller grants, perhaps?

@Steglitz90 Just to clarify, my kid’s scholarship was not front-loaded. We did get two letters with different amounts but the one with the lower amount ($52k for 2 years) was, we believe, an error on their part. DS will receive $26k Presidential scholarship per year so long as he maintains a 3.0 GPA. We have no issues with this scholarship.

OP, I would think that generally, looking at the East Coast, any University located south of the Mason-Dixon Line will generally have pretty good weather. I went to Uni in DC and despite the occasional St Patrick’s Day snowstorm we were usually outside playing softball by President’s Day and wearing shorts by Easter.

If you are looking for a good combination of prestige plus warm weather, there are lots of choices from MD to GA. Good luck.

OP said: “warm climate/good weather (no snow)”

You have to get well south of DC to find a warm weather/no snow climate. I suggest Rice, Tulane, or Univ. of Florida

^ then OP needs to consider a trade off. What is more important, prestige or no snow, given that some years, snow can reach down as far south as Atlanta or Northern Florida!

How much can your parents pay and will you need to find merit scholarships? Are you lower income?
Your stats are excellent so you’ll have lots of options.

Wofford college in Spartanburg SC

Also, what does the OP mean by “fairly prestigious college”? If that means highly ranked schools, there just aren’t that many in warm climates. As one example (which is by no means perfect) there are only 5 schools in the top 25 National Universities and LACs that are located south of Virginia and not in CA (Duke, Emory, Vandy, Rice and Davidson).

Do you consider OP’s stats good enough for schools like Rice, Vandy, Duke, Emory and UT Austin?

Furman, UofSC Honors college

@SugarlessCandy Good point. Probably not at this stage, but as a junior still has time to improve.

I will enthusiastically second New College of FL, if the OP is interested in smaller colleges. Maybe College of Charleston or Eckerd as true safeties, but NCF is a likely match, and its bayfront location is splendid.