<p>Climate can be more or less significant depending on your lifestyle.
If you’re a studious person who will rarely venture outdoors except between classes, the difference between Chicago and Philadelphia shouldn’t matter too much. I mean, we live and work inside climate-controlled buildings, right? </p>
<p>If you’re a devoted jogger, cyclist, skier, canoeist/kayaker/sailor, hiker, or rock climber, then the climate and terrain really matters. </p>
<p>Many colleges and universities were founded more than 100 years ago (before air conditioning or even central heating). So they weren’t put in places totally inhospitable to human life.</p>
<p>As I always say when this subject comes up, it’s about having the right gear. In my experience, people who visit the north and freak out about the cold do so because they are improperly dressed (which stands to reason, because if they live down south they would have no need to own proper insulating layers and outerwear). </p>
<p>The other thing to consider is each school’s schedule. Many have a month or so off for winter break, which means a break from the weather as well if one is going from a cold climate to a warmer one.</p>
<p>No place is perfect weather-wise. We all know that California is going to fall into the ocean during one of their earthquakes. We all know that as soon as Lake Michigan freezes, marauding polar bears start devouring undergrads. We all know that the humidity from Houston to Atlanta to Miami is so dense that students actually drown walking to classes.</p>
<p>The weather is what the weather is; there are plenty of good schools all over the country in all sorts of climates. The best school is the one that provides the best environment for you to excel in; if that means it has to be temperate to warm outside, so be it. Set a line that you won’t apply North of, then start filling out apps - don’t sweat/shiver the rest of the details.</p>
<p>I live in Florida and will be staying in state for college next year. I would avoid all state colleges except for New College. But the private ones are nice (Rollins, Flagler, Florida Southern, Eckerd)</p>
<p>If you’re like me and get slightly depressed by Winter and cold temperatures, I think so. I feel less motivated to do things when it’s cold out, I just wanna wrap up in a blanket and sleep.</p>
<p>That being said I think I’d still pick the best school I can get into when my results come. If I have to make a decision between let’s say a #20 ranked school versus a #25, then maybe I’d factor in weather as a decision. But if it’s anything significant, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal</p>
<p>“Many colleges and universities were founded more than 100 years ago (before air conditioning or even central heating). So they weren’t put in places totally inhospitable to human life.”</p>
<p>That’s a great point. Any college made before all of our modern amenities obviously still survived. I never thought about that before. That makes me feel better about wanting to go to school in Chicago when I live in SC haha</p>
<p>My s’s both attended colleges in very warm climates (one by choice/preference for warm ewather, one because thats where the school happened to be). It does stay very warm/humid/rainy for many months, but in the dead of winter is quite preferable to the snow and ice- at least to them. The buildings and dorms are all air conditioned. That wasnt true when they spent a summer at Duke on the old campus. Ugh!!</p>