<p>A weekend in the 80s for St Patrick’s Day!</p>
<p>Most of the top universities are in cold places. The only exceptions are just about Stanford and Rice.</p>
<p>I suppose UChicago has indoor heating in all the buildings and dorms?</p>
<p>Yes, they have indoor heating. Indoor plumbing, too.</p>
<p>I remember in one of ravens older threads someone said one of the houses or dorms (i think they said ihouse or something… I don’t know what that is) didn’t have ac though. And I red that one of the older dorms has fire places in some of the rooms although I doubt they work or are allowed to be used.</p>
<p>I think they were talking about the International House, not a dorm.</p>
<p>Oh, that makes sense. I didn’t know what that was and assumed it was one of the houses in a dorm.</p>
<p>Actually, some of the older dorms indeed don’t have any sort of A/C. BJ, for instance, doesn’t have A/C, and I’m under the impression that Snitchcock may not either, though I’d need to double-check on that. BJ’s heating is also centralized; when the people in charge of the heating decide it’s too warm to justify the cost, then you may be stuck in a cold room until the weather turns cold again. You can control the heating once it’s on though by changing the settings on the radiator.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t know if it’s just my room or not, but some rooms get incredibly stuffy in BJ even with the window open and the radiator off. Blessing during the winter, not so nice when the weather’s warm. I’m thinking this is due to the fact that this year my room’s facing the inner courtyard (direct sunlight + less wind); never had this problem my previous two years when I had rooms facing the Midway.</p>
<p>[Guide</a> to Day-to-Day Living in the Dorms](<a href=“http://housing.uchicago.edu/undergraduate_housing/day_to_day_guide.shtml#aircon2]Guide”>http://housing.uchicago.edu/undergraduate_housing/day_to_day_guide.shtml#aircon2)</p>
<p>“Max Palevsky, South Campus, Stony Island and New Graduate Residence Hall have air conditioning in addition to heat.”</p>
<p>The other dorms, which house a significant portion of the student body, do not have centralized air conditioning. This is a non-factor, really, since the dorms that do have air keep it off for the vast majority of the school year.</p>
<p>It’s the news reports! I’m in Florida, and when I imagine the news reporting about bad winter weather, images of people trudging through downtown Chicago comes to mind. But when I think of Boston, etc, I think of Fall colors. We all know that it’s not like that all the time in either of those places, but those are images that come to mind.
When the news shows horrible snowy weather=Chicago, horrible thunderstorms and heat=Dallas or Houston, of course, not exclusively, but often enough. </p>
<p>LOL I just turned to my H and asked, if you saw a report on the news about horrible, snowy weather, where do you imagine they’d be reporting from? ans: Chicago. ;-)</p>
<p>Reading about no A/C in some of the dorms would definitely be a concern. You will not convince a Floridian (ok most Floridians) that no A/C is a tolerable thing(even if just for allergies). Can you install a window unit in the dorms that have no A/C?</p>
<h2>“I just turned to my H and asked, if you saw a report on the news about horrible, snowy weather, where do you imagine they’d be reporting from?”</h2>
<p>And I would think of New England, with the crippling nor’easters and ice storms that knock out power for days. I went from Miami to Chicago to attend Northwestern–back in the 80s, when the winters WERE brutally cold (a -80F windchill off Lake Michigan was not unusual). And that was before Uggs and Smartwool and NorthFace. Yes, the winters can be cold but they haven’t been that bad in a long time and at least Chicago and the upper Midwest know how to deal with the snow, when we get it.</p>
<p>Considering there are maybe 2-3 schools that are of UChicago’s caliber or better at the undergraduate level that are located in a warm environment, I’m going to say the answer is no to this question.</p>
<p>It is the combination of cold, snow, and wind that makes Chicago stand out. New England is much bearable in winter. Weather may play the role of tie breaker between, say, UChicago and Columbia.</p>
<p>Since we all love rankings so much…Forbes ranks Boston and NYC in its top three for worst winter weather (Cleveland is #1).</p>
<p>[America’s</a> Worst Winter Weather Cities - Forbes.com](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/05/weather-snow-storm-lifestyle-travel-winter-snowfall.html]America’s”>America's Worst Winter Weather Cities)</p>
<p>I’d take colder temps and snow over freezing rain or ice any day.</p>
<p>Also remember that students experience the weather differently from non-students. </p>
<p>Recall the blizzard in Feb 2011:</p>
<p>Non-students: cars stuck for hours on Lakeshore drive, major task to remove snow from their roofs and driveways, many other inconveniences</p>
<p>Uchicago students: classes cancelled, epic snowfight on the quad, hot chocolate in the dining halls. (Ok, ok, a few did end up spending the night in the library)</p>
<p>How many applicants does Chicago lose because it’s too cold? None, as far as I know. If the weather gets really bad, the tour guides hand out little electronic homing beacons, and so far they haven’t lost anybody! Just in case, though, there is a kennelful of St. Bernards on call with their little casks of Canadian Club. Don’t worry about getting lost!</p>
<p>Well…it IS cold, so fair is fair.</p>
<p>My dd has thrown out no less than 15 pieces of mail from UChicago - because it is “too cold”. I wish she wouldn’t but she is MISERABLE under 30 degrees and her uncle lives in Chicago and complains every winter about the cold!
Loves the spring and summer but hates the winter!</p>
<p>If she’s miserable under 30 degrees, that’s pretty much it for schools north of the Mason-Dixon line…</p>
<p>Duke, Stanford, USC, Tulane, Emory, Vanderbilt, Florida, Miami, all you could name it.</p>