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<p>I agree, but your May to Sept temps don’t apply very much to a college discussion since most kids don’t go to summer school.</p>
<p>I’ve lived in Miami. The summers are brutally hot and humid, but from late October to late April, which encompasses most of the school year, the weather is wonderful.</p>
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<p>Of course. I was just replying to a previous poster who made the audacious claim that it was just as hot in the north in the summer as in the South. Clearly not the case.</p>
<p>But May and September heat can make a big difference to some people in choosing a college. </p>
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<p>That’s a matter of personal taste, not an objective fact. My D1 loves warm, even hot weather and would be perfectly happy in a climate like Miami’s. My D2 can’t stand hot weather; she literally breaks out in a rash anytime it gets above the mid-80s, which would make a place like Miami unbearable for her 5 months out of the year. She also much prefers 4 seasons, including a snowy winter and a colorful fall, and she prefers cooler weather in the spring and fall, which is why so many New England LACs are at or near the top of her list. We lived in California for a year while I was on a visiting academic appointment and she hated it, missed the snow terribly, said it was her worst Christmas ever without the snow, even though we spent a few days over Christmas break playing in the snow up at Mt. Shasta, “going to the snow” as the California kids called it. She’d never agree that the weather in Miami is “wonderful.”</p>
<p>PantherTrax (post #92) is absolutely right. Not everyone thinks good weather = warm weather. People have very different preferences about this. Warm weather people often seem blind to the possibility that others might have different preferences.</p>
<p>College just wouldn’t be the same without the midwest’s “way too hot in the summer, way too cold in the winter”…</p>
<p>I hate hot, and I hate humid. So, schools in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida might not be very appealing to me. But, if I got a great scholarship offer to one of them, I’d sure think about it. </p>
<p>You should pay <em>some</em> attention to weather just as you should to size of school, type of school, and dozens of other factors. The problem is when someone rules out good colleges only for weather. I find a lot of my own students (in southern California) are actually <em>scared</em> of going east to college because they’ll die in the long winters. Silly kids. You’ll freeze, but you won’t die! Would you not go to Paris because it rains there? I doubt you would. </p>
<p>I like warm weather but I also like crisp fally days. And I like snow. Up to a point. So for me, going to Colgate University was not difficult. A little too much cold at times, admittedly, and a whole lot of snow, but a shared challenge for everyone there. It wasn’t the North Pole, after all, and there were also beautiful fall days and pretty spring weather, too. </p>
<p>If I got a great job offer in Chicago (which is much colder and a lot windier!) I’d still seriously consider it. Avoiding schools where you don’t think you can take a change of weather can really be just another way of not wanting to come out of your comfort zone, your cocoon. Challenging yourself to do something different isn’t just meeting new people and so on, it’s also putting yourself through different experiences. I don’t much want six months of grey weather, but I’m not upset by three or four months of cold and snow. In fact, I like the changing seasons. And it makes spring and summer soooo much nicer to enjoy. So, be sure you’re not being a baby about it, but yes you should give it some thought.</p>
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<p>Another weather myth. Chicago is NOT “much colder” than upstate New York, e.g., Colgate.</p>
<p>Average Daily Mean Temperature, Chicago:
Nov 39.3
Dec 27.4
Jan 22.0
Feb 27.0
Mar 37.3</p>
<p>Average Daily Mean Temperature, Syracuse
Nov 39.7
Dec 28.6
Jan 22.7
Feb 24.5
Mar 33.6</p>
<p>Chicago averages 1.2 degrees colder than Syracuse in December, but is 2.5 degrees warmer in February and 3.7 degrees warmer in March. So on the whole Syracuse (and nearby Colgate) are colder.</p>
<p>Nor, with an average wind speed of 10.3 mph, is the Windy City a particularly windy place. Among the U.S. cities that are windier: Boston (12.4 mph), Bridgeport CT (11.4), Buffalo (11.8), Cincinnati (12.2), Cleveland (10.5), Corpus Christi (12.0), Dallas (10.7), Des Moines (10.7), Fargo (12.2), Honolulu (11.3 mph), Kansas City (10.6), Key West (10.9), Milwaukee (11.5), Minneapolis-St. Paul (10.5), New York-JFK (10.8), New York-LaGuardia (12.4), Norfolk (10.5), Oklahoma City (12.2), Omaha (10.5), Providence (10.4), San Francisco (airport) (10.6), Sioux Falls SD (11.0), Wichita (12.2).</p>
<p>Little known fact: Chicago got the nickname “Windy City” not because of its weather, but because of the bluster of its promoters early in the city’s history. Now granted, during certain weather conditions you can occasionally get a cold blast off the lake, especially in winter. But the prevailing winds are from the west, and relatively moderate. Chicago is, on average, not a particularly windy city, though it is known as the Windy City.</p>
<p>Okay, let’s keep this in perspective. College is only 4 years and not even all year. Why would you rule out a college that you would otherwise want to attend because of THE WEATHER??</p>
<p>Millions of Americans (let’s not even consider the whole world) live where there is winter. And in some cases extreme winters. They live there, it’s their home, they don’t move. They deal or may even love. Millions of others live where it can be very hot and humid. Again, it is where they live, etc. Other places are rainy, others barely changing and boring, etc.</p>
<p>I guess my point is, if you give up a college that you would otherwise want to attend but don’t because of weather that millions of other folk live in and can deal with, and you are only going to live in for 4 year, I believe you are a spoiled brat or Prima donna. (If there is a medical condition, I understand). Come on…</p>
<p>Absolutely consider weather! It’s a huge factor in my happiness. I currently live in Colorado and am going to south central California this fall. Even though Colorado ussually has “mild” winters I can’t handle half a year of brown and grey dullness. This year we had a week where it was below -5 F all the time and I actually had a hard time getting through that. This may sound wierd, but I started looking for colleges based on weather. I eliminated the east coast and north immediately and stuck to the south and west coast.</p>
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I don’t believe slight or even important factor = deciding factor. Let’s not be overly dramatic. </p>
<p>In any case, there are approximately 2800 four year colleges in the US. Ruling out a few based on weather does not do much harm, I think…unless posters are truly irritated that not everyone will consider Wisconsin and Cornell because of the cold or Furman and the College of Charleston because of the humidity.</p>
<p>The discussion of weather was one of the more memorable aspects of my Chicago alum interview several years ago. When I responded in the affirmative after being asked if I liked the cold, the interviewer persisted - “No, I mean, really cold. As in, your teeth ache…”</p>
<p>I don’t believe it is silly at all. I am going to be applying to graduate schools on the East Coast because I’m tired of Midwest winters. If you have SAD I would DEFINITELY consider keeping weather in the considerations.</p>
<p>That being said… give yourself the benefit of the doubt.</p>
<p>Just because you go to college in the NE/Midwest/somewhere where it snows does not mean you can’t get out and do things. Snowball fights on the quad are one of the best things about going to school in the Midwest. And… there is way more luck that you will get a snow day!</p>