<p>Carleton winters are not exactly balmy with median highs averaging 33F from Jan-March, but the weather is very similar to New England LACs. The school operates on a trimester system with Fall term intentionally letting out before Thanksgiving avoiding all of December’s chill. Spring and Fall terms are lovely with median temps in the 60’s. In addition, while Northfield is not exactly Las Vegas, it sits in an unusually sunny belt with, believe it or not, as many days of sunshine yearly as Raleigh/Durham and more than DC, Nashville, Louisville, Philadephia, …... It’s a four season school with 2-3 months of temps cold enough to sustain the campus “Bald Spot” ice rink for skating, broomball and warming hut hot toddies to invigorate the spirit.</p>
<p>Carleton - good physics, the arb, interesting students, pretty good student run radio station. </p>
<p>Swarthmore is pretty good too.</p>
<p>1190: Not to discourage anyone from looking at Carleton — I think it's a great school, it was one of my top choices after Wes — but to say "the weather is very similar to New England LACs" is misleading, I believe (based on the many stories my good friend who goes to Carleton as told me about the winter term). I mean, maybe it's not that different from Middlebury weather (I wouldn't know) but I can guarantee you no one is going to a formal at Wesleyan (very much a New England LAC) with extra winter layers under their formal wear, not even in February. And the Carelton rep at the college fair was the only one who told me about -20 degree weather! </p>
<p>I mean, it sounds like Carleton students still have a good time, even with the cold, but the cold is still there--and some people (perhaps the OP included) know thier limits and know that the weather would be too much for them.</p>
<p>Where I live it was -20 wind chill last year so I was looking to get away from the winds of the plains. Moving farther north sounded like a stupid idea. That and I know two teachers from Minnesota and they can both irritate the hell out of anyone (especially each other).</p>
<p>Weskid:</p>
<p>Certainly agree with your argument re: Wesleyan's milder weather, but Wes, you'd also agree, is as southern as a New England school can get - only 20 miles or so to fall into the waters of Long Island Sound. Other than Jan and Feb (remember Carleton's break runs latter part of Nov-post New Years) there is remarkable overlap between weather there and at schools like Williams and Middlebury. Early Fall and late Spring average temps are actually warmer in Northfield.</p>
<p>Mythmom:</p>
<p>Fully agree. I also had trouble calling Wes location truly rural and, for this reason, did not include it in my previous post. There is no question that it presents one of the strongest, if not the strongest, overall science program among top NE LACs.</p>
<p>Swarthmore might be just a few miles from Philadelphia, but it's really isolated in a small nice little town. It's really pretty rural, but with easy city access as well.</p>