<p>reeinaz, my D is the same way (for now). Wants winter, not heat. Wants snow. </p>
<p>I recently met some college students from Ottowa…talk about cold. They acted as if upstate ny were the tropics. :)</p>
<p>Hi viewer ! Keeping you in my prayers.</p>
<p>My S likes to be in New England mainly for the weather. Even though he may not make a final decision based on this,I am sure he will miss the weather if he is placed in a warmer place.</p>
<p>Empty nest- is scary. My nest is already empty to start with and I dread the feeling of being lonely…Well, I have been too busy with my child that my career always came secondary. I can start doing things I always wanted to do.</p>
<p>Funny about the weather–on on tour in Indiana the tour guide was commenting about how “cold” it got and that they usually got a few inches of snow here and there over the winter and just wanted to make sure that everyone understood that. He went around and asked were people were from and got to our DS who said “MN”. The tour guide said “well, in that case, it’s tropical here in the winter, you probably won’t even need to bring a winter coat” :). We got a good laugh over that.</p>
<p>My FL son claims he wants to go north and feel some change in weather. But when the mail comes from Carleton or Macalester, he says that those schools are too far north (not that he has ever been to MN). Of course, he and DW are heading to Chicago next week to look at schools. Not sure how MN is too cold, but Chicago is ok. That’s why they are visiting in Feb. I hope its cold enough that he can make informed decisions next year. I know it seems trivial and mind-over-matter stuff, but Atlanta starts to feel cool when you live in FL long enough.</p>
<p>mncollegemom: No offense meant to Catholics! I’m married to one 
I grew up thinking EVERYONE was Catholic as I born in NJ; I am Episcopalian (or as DH calls it “Catholic Light” all of the ceremony & none of the guilt 
But there are not a lot of Catholics here in TN. I think there’s only 1 K-8 Catholic school in our county while our last town in NJ had 3 within our little town of 15,000.</p>
<p>I think that most people will say that the winters are longer and harsher in MN. It gets cold earlier in the Fall and stays cold longer into the Spring. MN, in most winters, seems to have periodic long periods of really, really, really cold weather … 10 straight days where the temp does not get above 10 degress.</p>
<p>The winters I spent in Chicago during college were milder than my northern Iowa winters as a kid. Although, I did have a college friend from Florida that got some bad frostbite on his ears. The fool walked some girls back to their sorority without a hat.</p>
<p>dadotwoboys-we are having an unseasonably warm winter this year. That may change in the next few weeks but the long range outlook isn’t showing that. Typically this time of year the temps hover around zero, give or take 20 degrees. It’s supposed to be 45 degrees here today. We have no snow except for the remnants of a snowman in our yard. It probably isn’t the “best” test but if he thinks it is too cold this winter, he won’t make it :). The Twin Cities area, on average, is about 10 degrees colder in the winter than Chicago. We have more extreme days, a few days here and there where with windchill it will be in the -40 range. You don’t typically see that in Chicago. It doesn’t always happen here either. Flip side, you don’t typically see the 125 (with heat index) like we saw last summer in Chicago either.</p>
<p>Even in MN there is a huge average temperature difference between northern MN and southern MN. Average temps in far Northern MN are at least 10 degrees colder year round and while that doesn’t sound like much, it’s still the difference between an 80 degree summer day and a 90 degree summer day.</p>
<p>Thanks for the weather feedback. I grew up in a cold, snowy place up north, so I am all too familar with cold weather. But I spent a very cold and windy St. Patricks in Chicago one year and that must have left a stronger impression than I thought. Funny you mention the heat in the summer. That’s hotter (in a feels like sense) than we are used to here. I won’t tell him that. Guess you get used to where you are and he will adapt to wherever he lands.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, I notice buds on my Gardenia bush out front. Just sayin’.</p>
<p>I’m worried about our plants. They are supposed to be under a layer of snow all winter. This is NOT good for them. My iris’s have come up 3 times already this winter–only to be chewed down but the rabbits. Several of our trees have buds on them. If we get a cold blast in Feb I wonder what will happen to them? I know the golf courses around here are very worried about what will happen to the greens.</p>
<p>Dadotwoboys, here’s hoping your S and DW have a nice visit in Chicago. We are in the 'burbs. There are lots of threads about transportation and good food over in the cafe. </p>
<p>Next week’s weather looks about the same, high thirties, low forties. Not normal for this time of year.</p>
<p>That’s too bad. I was hoping for cold and maybe snow. Thanks for the advise on the cafe.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, S2 is thinking about colleges, although in a vague and low-key way. Last night he mentioned that Oberlin is off of his list. He looked at it online and decided that it was just too rural. Also off the list are Rice and Northwestern (too brainy) and Eastman (too cold). At least he knows what he doesn’t want!</p>
<p>I’m curious about the college marketing material. My D has been receiving it for two years now and actually reads a lot of it. She enjoys and laughs at some of the material, especially the ones from particular schools (e.g. Macalester). I think she actually looks forward to receiving mail from those schools. To what extent, if any, does that reflect a personality match with those schools? Or is it just an indication of good marketing? We really worry about finding a good social match for her as she is “on the spectrum.”</p>
<p>Bappy1 - In the same boat with my “on the spectrum” son, he also enjoyed the Macalester e-mail, esp. the peeing orange since he has been raised a Syracuse “Orange Man” fan. </p>
<p>The only other mail that grabbed his attention was Swathmore, otherwise they all seem to be offer the exact same guide to choosing colleges. The un-read pile of mail on the dining room table is just getting taller and taller - I guess at some point it will go in the trash.</p>
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</p>
<p>…That certainly is a quirky school :)</p>
<p>^^^lol</p>
<p>The peeling orange bugs ds2 to no end.</p>
<p>2011 PSAT info by state is up . . . interesting. Looks like kids scored lower across the board this year (in the high ranges) with the biggest difference being in math. I would think cut-offs would be lower this year - good news for kids on the edge. I only looked at Ohio/Midwest - the Midwest had a slightly bigger drop in math compared to national. </p>
<p>Number of Juniors scoring 75-80 Nationally:
CR .2% drop
M .5% drop
W .2% drop</p>
<p>Tons of mail here too. S had a chuckle reading one letter that touted their school as being named in the top “376” colleges. lol</p>
<p>Sendem, where do you see the PSAT scoress? Link?</p>
<p>I get the sentiment of wanting your kid to see what winter will be like if your kid picks a Northern school, but I liken it to finding a spouse – If your first meeting was designed to see him/her at their worst, would you have married them? If I had known how crazy my in-laws where, I would have run for the hills. 
All I’m saying is give them a chance to fall in love with a place and then a few weeks of freezing weather won’t seem so bad. Or maybe it will. ;)</p>
<p>I’m still not sure about which links can be posted and which can’t, but here ya go . . . [College-Bound</a> Juniors 2011 - PSAT/NMSQT](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-reports-research/psat/cb-jr-soph/juniors]College-Bound”>SAT Suite of Assessments – Reports | College Board)</p>
<p>Gracias! Off to take a look-see. :)</p>