I grew up in Montreal, and then went to university in Boston. One daughter graduated recently from a small university in eastern Canada.
In Boston I would rarely have any reason to wear a knee length coat. Generally an insulated parka that is about waist long is fine. I use boots that are perhaps about ankle high, but insulated a bit. You will want some “grip” in the sole since ice is common. Some form of gloves or mittens are often needed.
There are more cases in Maine or Vermont or Montreal or Ann Arbor where you want a longer coat, and want to cover your ears. In these cold places you will frequently want to wear very fine gloves under your insulated mittens. Here is an example that really is apparently still made from silk. You would not need these in Boston however.
Unfortunately these glove liners are easy to lose.
If you are skiing and the high for the day is about 15 F (common for example in Northern Vermont), then you need to dress very warmly. The amount of layers and clothes needed would far exceed what you might want to wear attending university in Boston.
It is highly likely that wherever your daughter will be attending university she will find stores with people who understand the local needs and styles very well. In cold weather the local “style” is usually dominated by “warm”. This will not however be needed in September, so there is time to purchase gear after arriving on campus.
And yes, I do have some boots from LL Bean, and so do my daughters.
But it really depends on the individual. As I mentioned I live in North Carolina and I have been thinking about getting a longer coat because I get so chilly here. I live in fake tall Uggs (real wool from Bearpaw), flannel lined jeans, two top layers indoors (long sleeves and a hoodie or sweater) and a down jacket (waist length) for outside because I get cold so easily, plus hat n gloves as needed. I am cold from November to mid-March. I readily acknowledge I would be a complete disaster up north. (But I can take whatever heat and humidity you wanna throw at me in the summer.)
Yes that is true. It will also depend upon how long you spend outside, and what you are doing when you are outside.
University students frequently will spend more time outside compared to us older people. For example they will often walk to class, whereas if we live in a suburb we might drive wherever we are going. When my daughters went to university in areas where the temperature was very similar to where we already live, they still needed warmer boots.
A lot will depend on what you are used to experiencing. We have neighbors who moved here from Texas. If its under 50, they are wearing hats and gloves. In the fall, they walked by in jackets, hats and gloves while I was cutting the grass in shorts and a t-shirt.
Agree that college students tend to be outside more. They walk greater distances. My daugther told me today it was -10 this morning when she was walking to class. She is used to the cold and has a number of coats/jackets, gloves and boots. Fellow students take a similar approach.
At first I read that as “if it’s over 50” and I thought I don’t think I’d be wearing a hat and gloves if it was over 50, but in the 40s and under yeah, you bet I would! And you were in shorts and a t-shirt in the 40s?!? Brrrrr…
That said, we had a little bit of snow here recently and I live close to some beach volleyball courts. I looked out the other day and one of the courts still had snow on it, but people were playing in shorts and t-shirts on one of the other ones. That’s North Carolina weather right there. It’s 20 this morning, snow forecast for tomorrow/Sat, but supposed to be in the 60s by next week. Bring on the 60s, I say!
Definitely get your daughter some warm boots and a warm coat. I’d go with a puffy coat myself.
I’m always surprised by the range of dress where I live too (Chicagoland). I was out snowshoeing on Monday and passed people jogging in shorts and hoodies.
Conversely, there are always those folks who come from warm places with their knee high fuzzy boots, ankle length puffy coats, and hats in October when it dips into the low 50s. I worry about those kids when we hit -25 ; )
At the U of Mn many of the girls wear the longer down coats. Now is a great time to get the coats that run $200 to $375 for $100 to $175.
Not being the land of conspicuous consumption, the $1,200 to $1,500 coats are much less common, maybe in certain sororities I suppose. . Warm boots too. Not regular suede Ugg’s boots, they really aren’t weather tough enough (and lots of salt in the sidewalks here in winter that trashes them) unless you get the Ugg’s winter/snow boots which are pretty good.
Two days ago the wind chill was -32 degrees, so warmth is the priority in January. Temps that cold are only a few weeks a year though. My daughter gets cold easily, she has been wearing her down coat since early November. She also wears leggings under pants and smart wool socks in January.
Just a side note, one of the nicest outdoor gear stores in the state Midwest Mountaineering is right next to the West Bank U of M campus. A little pricey but they have lots of gear for outdoor types. Their outdoor expos in fall and spring each have a weekend of free presentations in classrooms one of the nearby U of M building on everything from outdoor photography to camping to retrofitting a camper van. Very fun and free. They also show the Banff film festival films in the big auditorium (Wille Hall)?. Very fun. The also have exhibitors behind the store that give you some great ideas for ootdoor fun in the upper Midwest. If you come here you need to embrace the weather!
My Texas D22 is traveling next week to visit the Midwest campus where she has been admitted and is seriously considering attending. I am glad the weather forecast is for very cold (typical February weather) so she can get a first-hand idea of what the winters will generally be like in that area of the country. I thought if the weather was an unseasonal 50 degrees the whole time she was there she might get a false idea of what to expect this time of year.
I told her to pay attention to what the other girls on campus are wearing to help with assembling a wardrobe if she decides to attend.
Unless its a very small campus, I would expect a good cross section of wardrobes on campus in the winter. From those who look like they could be on the cover of Vogue to girls who layer on sweatshirts and PJ bottoms with tennis shoes. And everyone in between in terms of fashion and practicality.
I wore a long wool coat my freshman year. RA told me only upperclassmen wore coats like that. I asked Only upperclassmen can be warm?" I wore that coat for 30 years.
We have the opposite, my D is from the Midwest and goes to school in Texas. Of course the day we visited her school in April the Texas weather was absolutely perfect. The joke all day from everyone at the University was that the weather was always just like that. When she comes home for breaks in the winter we meet her at the airport with her long winter parka.
Good luck to your daughter! The cold will be different but they adjust!
Very good advice! I’m in the upper midwest and typically we all have several winter coats. When you are wearing them for 6 months you need options A thinner parka for late fall/spring (like a Patagonia, although mine is from Costco!), and a longer one with a hood (like North Face) for real winter. Same with boots-kamik or sorel snow boots for snow/mucky cold weather and Uggs for cold and dry. My DD also has rain boots for spring but you could do without that at school. Also she likes the cute hats with pom pom and prefers thicker lined mittens which are warmer than gloves.
Someone else mentioned this but I want to reiterate that the building where she attends class and her dorm will be heated and possibly kept too warm. She needs a nice warm coat that she can remove rather than a bunch of layers to keep track of. We’re from Texas and learned that layers are good for exercising outdoor but not for going to and from class.
Daughter is in NH. She had a medium weight coat until Thanksgiving. After she brought her ski jacket and a long parka. Most girls wear long parkas that are navy or black. I am in Boston a lot and see the girls all in their Canadian Goose long parkas. Daughter’s is Lands End. She has several pair of gloves and hats and snow boots. She also has a boot tray for her shoes.
She has found that the classrooms are either hot or cold- so layers are a must.
The parents FB page for one kid’s college has discussion of a stolen Canadian Goose and how an Apple Air Tag sewed or pinned into it might have been a good idea.
My daughter wears my old Lands End parka that was thigh length on me but appears to be knee length on her. FYI Just read that the U of MN has the most extensive underground tunnel system of any college in the U.S.
And for the rest of us, the ones who live in a cold climate and somehow manage to exist without buying a $1275 long black coat for purposes of “signaling”, Costco usually has in-store and online a very nice thigh/knee length black hooded insulated coat by a knockoff maker, Andrew Marc, for as little as $30. Works fantastically well for long walks with the dog in subzero weather with wind and snow. Water and wind resistant, and has a wonderfully warm, faux-fur lined hood and collar. https://www.costco.com/andrew-marc-ladies’-long-stretch-jacket.product.100718014.html I bought an XXL for my 5 ft 6 in 170 lb body so that there’d be plenty of room to wear a fleece and one of those thin down zip jackets underneath, but I don’t need them - the coat is that warm. The picture shows a 5’9" woman in a small, so it would be longer on a shorter woman. For that price, you can buy two. It’s holding up well, bought mine a year ago and I use it every very cold winter day, twice a day. Dog didn’t need one - he came equipped with a double thick fur coat. I would say go high on the size, since I surely am not an XXL in anything else! I see that it comes in sizes Small to 2X, and I’d say that the 2X would fit a woman my height up to 200lb.
A thinner parka for late fall/spring (like a Patagonia, although mine is from Costco!), and a longer one with a hood (like North Face) for real winter. Same with boots-kamik or sorel snow boots for snow/mucky cold weather and Uggs for cold and dry. My DD also has rain boots for spring but you could do without that at school. Also she likes the cute hats with pom pom and prefers thicker lined mittens which are warmer than gloves.