Applying to college with seasonal depression

I highly recommend looking at the Claremont Colleges in Claremont CA. They are phenomenal schools - and vary in their selective acceptance rate. I gather you’re female – Scripps College is excellent, but not uber competitive compared to Pomona or CMC. **I suffer(ed) from SAD and spent my freshman year at BU. I transferred to Pomona College and it changed my life forever. It is amazing what sunshine and a mile climate will do for a person’s mood.

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Not sure how accurate it is, but here is the main image from that article, since it appears to be half-way behind a paywall. Red states are the worst for SAD, blue better.

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I struggle with this too and strongly second all those who encouraged you to look south/west and maybe let go of the dream of studying in the UK for now. In addition to the schools on your list, check out (in no particular order) Davidson, Rhodes, Sewanee, Occidental, Washington and Lee, U Richmond, Wake Forest, Elon, and Colorado College. Maybe also some of the CA Jesuit schools like Santa Clara, Loyola Marymount?

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Thank you! I’ve been accepted by Edinburgh but after some consideration am not going to go… still waiting on decisions from unis in the south of England. Cheers!

Your title is seasonal depression. And yet, virtually ALL your schools are in places with dark, cold, overcast winters!

You won’t get through college if your seasonal depression is out of control. No place in England has sunny winters.

Arizona. Southern CA. Florida. Gulf Coast (like Tulane, maybe). Why are you applying to all these schools where it’s dark, cold, and rainy?

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Thank you for all the input everyone, I’m sorry I can’t respond individually to all of the advice!!

I’ve added Clemson, Boulder, and University of Arizona to my list and forgot to mention Washington and Lee, Scripps, UIUC, some UCs, and Vanderbilt. I’ve taken off Northwestern, UChicago, CWRU, UMich, and Rutgers. Some people have mentioned WashU, that was actually my ED school, I was deferred and am hoping for good news.

I’m going to a mental health professional in about a month (which will be too late for most RD deadlines haha)

Oh, and if you want to slip in some more schools…

  • mid- or smaller-size preferable but willing to be flexible
  • not into greek life or partying
  • good disability, mental health support
  • liberal and preferably in a progressive state
  • politics/economics major
  • good classical music scene, students can take lessons and play in ensembles, preferably in a city with a decent orchestra… cool churches with decent choirs also wouldn’t hurt
  • good diversity
  • research and study abroad opportunities
  • obviously not in super northern places
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I was trying to find some sort of balance as I hate the heat, but that was a regrettable decision on my part. I live in a cold dark rainy place anyway so I’m not sure why, but I thought it would be manageable. I didn’t realize until the middle of December, when my mental health spiraled, that I needed to keep that in mind.

These are some tougher requirements (in a city with a decent orchestra/good music program, small-to-medium sized, not dark in the winter, etc.) Larger schools (including state schools) tend to have better ensembles/more opportunities to play chamber music, etc. if that’s something you’re interested in.

I know the conductor of the Boston College Orchestra and she’s really good. But…it’s Boston. There’s winter and it does get dark. I think both University of Denver and CU Boulder have strong music programs (Boulder has the Takacs Quartet in residence; Denver has Lamont School of Music). But Boulder is huge and definitely has a party scene (that would be true for any flagship state school you’d consider, though, including Michigan and Wisconsin).

Vanderbilt sounds kind of ideal (except for the frat prevalence) but it’s a long shot for most students. Duke would be wonderful but again, very hard to get into. Hmm…how do you weight these various factors? What are the nice-to-haves and what are the deal-breakers?

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How about University of Hawaii if you are in the WUE region?

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Yeah lol that’s why my list was a bit scattered
The “must-haves” really are:

  • good disability, mental health support
  • liberal and preferably in a progressive state
  • good diversity
  • obviously not in super northern places

I know it’s pretty specific

Why Vandy/W&L? Sure, you’ll have kids not totally into this but the #s don’t lie.

Also, neither is in a liberal state…Nashville is liberal but TN is over the top conservative.

U of A is a good choice - Arizona is purple but Tucson is liberal. U of NM might be better - blue state, diverse school.

Your majors can be done anywhere and study abroad can be done anywhere.

Not sure how you clarify diversity - but if it’s racial, Clemson is 76% white whereas a Colorado is 68% and Arizona is less than 50%. Of course, none of these are small.

I’m a huge fan of W&L but it meets little of what you want - including diversity or lack of. Rhodes or Agnes Scott (women’s college) would be much more so…but neither is in a progressive state - which often are up North - with the exception of So Cal.

I believe someone mentioned Occidental earlier - and it’s less than 50% white - so I’d call it diverse. PItzer is another that would work!!!

Don’t put yourself in a situation that won’t work for you just because you think a name will help you.

Good l

I’d check yes for everyone of these for U of Denver. More so than for Boulder, and I went to Boulder.

William and Mary just added an “arts quarter” which seems to be gorgeous new buildings for the fine and performing arts. Yes to choral groups and ensembles that are not primarily music majors. Certainly a liberal school on balance, and the Greek scene is nothing like large SEC schools.
Great for your major.

Worth checking out. They do value visits, so do anything you can to express your interest virtually.

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Progressive state and sunny weather. No idea what vibe or majors you are considering,

Stanford
Berkeley
Mills College campus of Northeastern U
Santa Clara
St Marys College
Occidental
Claremont Colleges
Loyola Marymount
U So Cal
UCLA
U San Diego
Chapman
San Diego State
UCSD
Arizona
Arizona State
New Mexico

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@dfbdfb have you seen this thread?

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Plus many of the CSUs, many of which are generally easier to get into than UCs. CSULB is very good. Campuses | CSU

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You need to go further South!! except for ASU and maybe Emory these are not sunny enough!! I also have SAD. I live in North Carolina and it still gets me every winter. We do have sunny days but gray and rainy are also common and 45 degrees and raining or even 55 degrees and raining does not make me feel sunny inside.

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In my personal experience I do best in sunny and warm. I would take warm (above 70) and rainy over cold (below 50) and sunny. Worst is rainy and cold. Snowy and cold is slightly better.

Another poster mentioned getting your thyroid checked. This is right on the money. The test is a blood draw. Please speak to your doctor about this today if you haven’t already. Your TSH should be close to 1. If it is around 2-4 you may have subclinical hypothyroidism which can be treated too. If it is higher than that it’s clinical. The range for a good TSH is 0.4-4, but the middle of that range is not where you want to be. The optimal point is about 1. If your doctor tells you that your TSH is 3.8 and that’s within the range go find another doctor!!

I have never had suicidal ideation dealing with SAD. That’s very serious. Fuzzy brain and lethargic and sad and blue — yes, definitely — but not going as far as suicidal thoughts. Vitamin D and regular exercise and light are very helpful.

For schools it would help to know more about what you like and what your grades any SATs, ACTs and AP scores are. If you have the grades Georgia Tech could be good. Maybe Duke, although as I said I still get SAD in NC, but I’m sure it would be way worse in Michigan or Massachusetts. Coastal colleges like College of Charleston have a more temperate climate usually with more sunny and warmer days.
Use a weather site or the weather app on your phone and compare some of the locations you are considering. Look at the cloud cover as well as temps.

I would definitely put some Southern California schools on your list. Arizona is great. Tucson is a fun city.

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University of New Mexico

  • it has a LOT of OOS students from all over the country.
  • Sunny all of the time.
  • Definitely isn’t a majority of Caucasian students.
  • Really good OOS merit scholarships.
  • NM is liberal
  • is hot in summer, but it’s not Phoenix hot (aka not “OMG I’m going to die because it’s like walking on the surface of the sun, how can it be 115 out here right now?”). High’s in 90s. Definitely gets cold in winter, ABQ often gets a little snow in the winter, but it doesn’t stick around.
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UNM scholarship info → https://scholarship.unm.edu/

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