Applying to college with seasonal depression

College Search & Lists
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Thanks for the ping, @Tigerle!

My C17 is subject to bouts of seasonal depression, and my C23 has a pretty severe case of it. And we live in Alaska, so it was definitely at the forefront of our college search process.

C17 ended up going to the mid-Atlantic (Muhlenberg, specifically), which was fine for her. That wouldn’t have worked for C23, though, so in our spreadsheet we had a column for solar energy. The US government has a site designed for people who want to put in a solar system, and if you put in a college’s zip code and click through on the next screens (just accept the default settings) you get a list of solar radiation in kWh/m²/day for each month and overall for the year.

We collected the annual value and the lowest wintertime value (usually December, but some places—like most of Colorado—it’s January). So, for example, if you plug in 20742 (which is the University of Maryland College Park, where I went for undergrad), you get an annual average of 4.79 kWh/m²/day and a monthly minimum (in December) of 2.98. If you put in 99775 (the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the northernmost university in the country) you get 3.04 and 0.05(!!), and for 76203 (the University of North Texas, where C23 is attending and very happy with the level of sunlight) you get 5.50 and 3.85, with the lowest monthly value in January.

We set an arbitrary minimum of 2.90 for the monthly minimum and 4.50 for the annual average (though we learned the former was more restrictive than the latter). Those were based mainly on vibes, though, based on our experiences traveling in different geographies over the years. It took only a couple hours of plugging in values to get them for a hundred or so colleges, and gave us something more objective than simply eyeballing the Mason-Dixon line or such. (Especially since you have phenomena like parts of the northern Intermountain West—e.g., the Front Range in Colorado—getting more sunlight than you’d expect due to the rain shadow effect resulting in fewer clouds, while parts of the southern Intermountain West have less sunlight than areas further north despite having more daylight hours in the winter.)

And now I’ve gone on too long and in probably too much detail, but maybe it’s a useful resource for you.

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University of Hawaii Manoa comes in at 4.61 minimum, 5.68 annual average, on that calculator.

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This is super interesting and you do get some counter-intuitive results – e.g. Lewiston, ME is way better for average sunlight than Walla Walla, WA. Boston only has one month (December) that sinks below your lower threshold. St. Paul is better than Albany or Pittsburgh or Cleveland.

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Personal experience matters for sure, but just to keep things clear for others who read this, SAD is related to exposure to light and has nothing to do with temperature. Hence, one major treatment is to use exposure to lights that mimic sunlight - there is no exposure to “heat” or 'warmth" aspect of SAD treatment. Sunny and cold is FAR better for SAD than warm and rainy/overcast. People may associate warmer climates with fewer SAD symptoms, but that is because it ot often sunnier as well. The warmth itself doesn’t impact it (other than that people may spend more time outside - unless it’s too hot).

This is so great and I am for sure adding this to my spreadsheet. I used the number of sunny days by city for ours and it is pretty good but this seems even more precise.

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Of course, students going to college in much sunnier areas than they grew up in may want to be aware of the increased risk of sunburn in sunnier areas, particularly if they are light skinned.

But there may also be other benefits of sunnier locations besides mitigating SAD. Darker skinned students who had vitamin D deficiency in less sunny areas may find being in sunnier areas helpful here.

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I don’t believe this is correct. SAD is related to SEASONAL changes. That’s what the S stands for. While there is some compelling evidence that sunlight may be a factor most of the scientific literature states that the cause remains unclear. Light therapy and vitamin D as well as antidepressants and talk therapy may be helpful for winter-pattern SAD. There is also a summer-pattern SAD, when obviously it is sunny and warm, but for some people those can be triggers.

There is no clear cause of SAD. Less sunlight and shorter days are thought to be linked to a chemical change in the brain and may be part of the cause of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Melatonin, a sleep-related hormone, also may be linked to SAD.

Light therapy has been helpful at times to me, but I am not using it this winter. I had some other life changes and medication adjustments that have helped and I am just waiting out winter now. Temperature absolutely 100% is a huge factor in my SAD. I do try to get exercise every day, but I find that in winter I am more likely to use the exercise bike indoors rather than take a walk. I love to walk on a warm sunny day, but a walk on a cold sunny day just can make me cranky and agitated and is not a positive for me.

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Interesting. I really think I have the opposite condition. I hate hot weather and get very cranky if it’s over 80 degrees. I feel physically sick, nauseous with headaches.

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I’m a POC and my skin is quite dark… but on the other hand I’m also part-Siberian so that’s definitely something to keep in mind, thank you! I hadn’t thought of that.

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This is also a personal experience, but for my daughter SAD was definitely related to light not temperature. She has lived in higher elevation towns that have cold but sunny winters and has done fine. Living in temperate, foggy cities has caused depression. Cold, overcast, northern locations are the worst.

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Some indigenous Arctic people tend to have darker skin than expected based on sunlight vitamin D production needs, but have traditional diets high in vitamin D (e.g. fatty fish), so they had less selective pressure for lighter skin.

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This is extraordinary helpful. S25 and I have ongoing issues which are exacerbated in the winter. So far he manages ok but this is a data point we can look at to see what places are at, or slightly better, than the values as we have now. Another data point I’m seeing is how abrupt the drop is between Sept/Oct, Oct/Nov, and Nov/December.

The results are not always what you’d expect. Looking at other data, I thought maybe if we were in the same “band” across the country, we could eyeball something similar to home, but then Ohio & Minnesota are worse, despite being at a similar latitude.

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thanks to russianization i’m not really connected to that part of my heritage, but fascinating, I will have a look!

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I would not look at schools in the northeast, Northwest, or midwest if I was you. there are so many schools to choose from- why take that chance? SAD is a real thing. just avoid it.

sunniest states are Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Colorado, California, Oklahoma, Kansas. Plenty of good schools to choose from.

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Finally got around to reading that Miami Hersld article. I did not think the methodology there was very good at all do I would caution folks about using that article as a reference. It’s silly to talk about states anyway since climate can vary so much. Here in North Carolina you can have a foot of snow at one end of the state and sunny and mild temps at the other.

This is a pretty good piece on the sunniest cities in the US: The Best (and Worst) Cities for Endless Sunshine | Move.org

They used the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2015 Comparative Climatic Data report to source sunny days vs the ”study” in that Miami Herald article using where Google searches were coming from which seems like a pretty sloppy methodology.

If you are looking for some winter temps but still want sun I think Colorado should be on your list. I would also include California schools. The temp can be more moderate there especially by the coast. Inland CA can get quite hot in spots. Arizona is very sunny across most of the state but might be too hot for you, although ‘it’s a dry heat’ in the desert environment; likewise New Mexico but at elevation in either of those states the heat is moderated.

The Southeast is worth considering if you are coming from an area with a really low sunny day number. It is not as sunny here as it is in other areas of the country like the desert Southwest but it’s sunnier than NY and PA and the PNW. the sunnier cities are away from the mountains although the mountains have their share of sun too. Winters are still chilly. It’s only consistently in the 70s in Florida — not going to get out of the 40s in my part of NC today. More green leafy trees than the desert. Not much snow except in the mountains. The coastal cities like Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, and the piedmont cities like Atlanta, Columbia, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill see more sun, with the coastal cities getting more.

Georgia and North Carolina are purple states politically with a mix of conservatives and liberals. Charleston SC is a mix politically but most of SC is very conservative. I did not like Greenville SC because of the conservative vibes. Savannah, Atlanta, Athens are liberal cities in GA; Charleston is a mix in SC — SC is much more conservative than GA or NC. Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Asheville are liberal in NC with Wilmington being a mix. Durham, Chapel Hill, and Asheville are very liberal, like as liberal as almost any other city in the country — they call Asheville the Portland of the South — but I think Durham and Chapel Hill may come out on top if you look at Democratic votes in election results. NC currently has a two term Dem governor but the Rs have an iron fist in the state legislature due to gerrymandering.

The South is generally pretty diverse racially. It’s a common misconception that it’s a super white area. Durham NC is a majority minority city with white people being about 40% of the population and the rest POCs.

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However, some colleges still have highly skewed racial demographics that reflect their HBCU/HWCU status from decades ago (e.g. AAMU and UAH).

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I didn’t mention Alabama in my recommendations because I don’t know of any liberal/progressive cities there like the OP is looking for. But yes HBCUs will have more black students. And it’s a good point to look at the diversity of the student body at any schools under consideration. College Factual has good stats on this that are easy to compare.

At UNC Chapel Hill about 36% of students are minorities. 11.6% Asian, 8.6% Hispanic, 8% Black/African American.

At UGA it’s 29.3% POC. 10.6%Asian, 7.5% Black/African American.

At Duke about 50% of students are POC (21% Asian, 10% international, 9.7% Hispanic, 8.8% Black/African American).

In comparison, at University of Washington Seattle about 47.4% of students are POC with 25.5% Asian, 16.6% international, 9% Hispanic, 7.6% multi-ethnic, and 3% Black/African American.

At Wisconsin, about 20% of students are POC with 11.4% international, 7% Asian and about 2% African American/Black.

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For comparison, in 2021, the overall US undergraduate student population was about 51% White, 21% Hispanic or Latino, 12% Black, 7.1% Asian, 4.5% two or more races, 0.65% Native American, 0.25% Pacific Islander.

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cha/undergrad-enrollment

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That’s good info to have. Do you know the general population stats for the undergrad age range? I think some minorities are underrepresented as students so that might be useful info for comparison too.

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Good info but would caution against college factual. The schools themselves report this in the common data set b2 for each school vs a third party.

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Young adult population ages 18 to 24 by race and ethnicity | KIDS COUNT Data Center says that in 2022, the age 18-24 population in the US was 0.82% Native American, 5.7% Asian, 14% Black, 24% Hispanic or Latino, 0.20% Pacific Islander, 52% White, 3.4% two or more race (the categories other than Hispanic or Latino counting only those who are not Hispanic or Latino).

Combining into one table:

Race / ethnicity 18-24 population Undergraduate population
Native American 0.82% 0.65%
Asian 5.7% 7.1%
Black 14% 12%
Hispanic or Latino 24% 21%
Pacific Islander 0.20% 0.25%
White 52% 51%
Two or more races 3.4% 4.5%
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