What to chose as my safeties...

Parents Forum
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<p>"Another "don't get it" moment for me. Why would a URM have any different reaction to cold, snowy weather than all the white California kids, including my own, who have headed off toward east coast schools? I have yet to see any such cautionary remark directed toward white or Asian kids in the Harvard threads."</p>

<p>Let me spell it out for you. Here's how the OP described herself:
"I am 16, a female, Mexican, my parents didn’t go to school, so I’m first generation going to a university."</p>

<p>As as first gen college student, she's probably low income. Since she lives in Calif. and is Mexican-American, if she has traveled, it's probably between Cali and Mexico. More than likely, her experience with the kind of brutal cold weather that the NE gets is through seeing it on TV. I really doubt that she has had lots of cold weather experiences such as one would get if one's hobby were skiing.</p>

<p>As a person who grew up in the NE, and has lived all over the country, I have seen how people react to that weather when they haven't experienced it before. Things particulary are difficult for people who also have to deal with the light deprivation that they experience due to the overcast days in the NE, which literally can stretch weeks on end.</p>

<p>Anyway, I pointed out the weather aspect, including how URMs may react because she is a URM. The people whom I've seen have a particularly difficult time with the weather are URMs, who also have to deal with the fact that the NE has far less diversity than, for instance, California (particularly for Asians and Hispanics) or places like Florida (particularly for African Americans and Hispanics.) Many URMS --particularly low income ones-- may not be as widely traveled as are, for instance, many white students. If they travel, many happy go to warm places - even in the summer. That's why one sees in black-oriented publications lots of summer ads for Caribbean vacations.</p>

<p>As for why I haven't said similar things to white students applying from the Sunbelt to Harvard -- there aren't a lot of first gen, low income white students in that category who post on CC. If I did see such a post, I would warn them about the climate, too. Come to think of it, I have warned many California East Coast applicants about the climate difference that they will experience in the NE or Midwest.</p>

42

<p>Climate warnings happen all the time on CC and they are directed indiscriminately. Whether previous posters made a special point of making such warnings b/c the OP is a URM is irrelevant to the fact that the NE is cold, so any prospective students, regardless of background, whether from Hawaii or Alaska, be forewarned and pack accordingly. That said, there are plenty of good things to be said for the fresh air, actual presence of seasons, motivation to stay indoors and work, opportunity for snow fun, and so forth which tend not to be commonplace in CA (not all of which, I realize, are any more present at NYU, Columbia, or Penn, but the point still stands). Double-edged sword, is all (coming from someone who's lived half of her life in the frozen tundra of the upper midwest and the other half in sunny California).</p>

<p>If you're able, visit any school that's located in a very different geographic area, and for more reasons than just climate. I only applied to a couple of out-of-state schools and didn't bother visiting until I knew my acceptances. Figured I'd just cross the bridge when/if it came. Also, if you do have concerns, admissions will usually be able to put you in touch with students who can answer your questions. Ask about cultural resources, try to talk to a Mexican-American student, try to talk to a Californian student, what have you. Ask them about how they adjusted to whatever transition happens to be worrying you, if any.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

43

<p>I'm sorry, NSM, but I don't see how being a Mexican American first generation college student makes the person ignorant of simple facts of geography and climate. I know that you are a minority yourself, but I still find that admonition to be patronizing when made specifically in the context of the person being a URM. She knows that it snows in Boston without you telling her. Cold, northern cities in the US are full of immigrants from hot, equatorial areas -- whether the immigrants are hispanic, arabic, caribbean or pacific islanders -- and all have managed to adjust. My own kid was born and reared in the SF Bay area, yet when I sent her off to Russia at age 16, she managed to cope with the Moscow winter. </p>

<p>I know it is a big step for any young person to travel far from home, and of course those who are low-income will be limited as to how often they can come home for visits. I just have a negative response to "caution" directed at a URM about the prospect of attending a prestige university over factors that apply with equal weight to anyone else, whether or not it was intentional and whatever the source. I am raising it here because I think that it is the kind of attitude that can work subtle discrimination that holds many minorities back -- for example, when a high school guidance counselor assumes that a first-generation hispanic female will want to stay close to home, and so recommends an in-state public, while urging a white kid with college-educated parents from the same school to apply to Ivies. </p>

<p>Obviously I cannot say whether anyone has ever said this to white kids on these boards, but I can tell you as the parent of two kids who have applied to colleges in the coldest parts of the midwest and in the northeast, and who both chose to attend schools in New York, never once did anyone choose to caution them or me about the weather. Distance, yes -- but the weather, no. </p>

<p>It seem to me at some level there is a suggestion that URM's somehow lack either the physical stamina to withstand cold weather or the intellectual sophistication to plan for it... and to me, that is somewhat demeaning. Again, my reaction is because the admonition was couched in the phrase, "Some URM's" would or would not be bothered by cold weather. If you had written, "Southern Californians" it would have made sense to me and I wouldn't have responded.... but again, I can't figure out what the response to cold weather has to do with either the fact that the OP is hispanic or that her parents didn't go to college.</p>