Junior daughter living in the Southwest has a rare health condition that is triggered by extended exposure to cold weather. She can bundle up and walk in the cold (and she does like the cold/snow) but shouldn’t be in the cold for much longer than 30 minutes. Schools in cold urban areas, like Boston/NYC, would hopefully be less of an issue because campus culture is presumably less outdoor-oriented. (She is not able to ski or do any sports). She is currently enrolled in an IB diploma program, grades and test scores put top schools in reach. Loves math/science/languages. Is looking primarily at schools in the northeast plus a couple of others. Where do schools such as Williams, Amherst/MHC and University of Chicago, some of her top choices, compare weather-wise to Boston in terms of extreme cold/long winters/trudging though heavy snowfall, and navigating the campus in 20-40 degree weather? Thanks for any thoughts.
I used to live in Amherst and Boston – they’re both going to have the same weather along with Williams.
Chicago definitely has a harsher winter, to the point where walking around for 15 minutes gets you numb. That being said, their campus isn’t too spread out.
Amherst Massachusetts will have plenty of days in the winter when temperatures are around about 20 degrees F. Chicago is going to be significantly colder than Amherst.
And with Chicago, its not the cold, its the wind chill. . . .
What about Davidson, Pomona?
I can’t think of a reason to be outdoors in Amherst for a half hour if you don’t want to be. The campus is not that large and the town is right next to it. Boston/Chicago might require being outside to travel around the city by bus or el or whatever.
There are plenty of great schools in warmer climates. Being in cold climates for limited amounts and living in colder climates are totally different so your family needs to really think if it’s worth it to go to a school in a cold climate. There will probably be large stretches of time when your child will be restricted to being inside buildings and not experiencing various activities.
As far as MHC is concerned - it’s a small, compact campus with a number of connected buildings making it so that a student can go from many buildings without going outside. if she is considering MHC then Scripps College would be one to investigate as well.
Thanks for this helpful input. Great to hear that Williams/Amherst/MHC may be doable, so we will visit in the spring.We have already warned her about Chicago but I wanted to ask for confirmation. We had a trip planned this summer to visit USC, Occidental, Pomona and Scripps but the cost of lodging and the car were out of sight, plus the time in traffic traveling to the schools was a negative, so I cancelled the trip, and we have taken them off the list. One attraction to the northeast is that we have close family in Connecticut and outside of Boston, so we would have a free place to stay for visits and she would have a place to go over breaks, and, it adds a level of comfort to have family within driving distance (my brother lives in Chicago). We will also look at the Philadelphia consortium, which should have milder weather. She may do Questbridge so we would like to visit a bunch of schools in the spring (in one week) in case she gets selected. If we can find time/money to look at Davidson, maybe we will visit with Duke as well. Her grandfather and uncle both went to Duke for grad school and liked it. But no family there.
Last year actually was colder in Boston than in Chicago. In my experience, they aren’t really that different.
Williams is a bit colder than Amherst/MHC because it is higher in the mountains, but again, not really that different.
I lived in Amherst for 5 years while I taught at Smith and Mount Holyoke. It was really cold, and got a lot of snow! More importantly, a lot of student social life in the Northeast LACS revolves around outdoor sports and activities. So your daughter might feel socially marginalized because of that. Any college in the Northeast that is on a coastline will have slightly warmer temperatures (and get less snow) than those based in the interior. Has she considered Yale? The residential colleges make life very easy, with meals and social activities physically centralized within each college and classes not far away from them either. Barnard and Columbia also have compact campuses and Barnard has underground tunnels from dorms to buildings with classrooms. Moving farther south, as you know, there is the consortium of Swarthmore, Haverford, Bryn Mawr and U Penn which will be much warmer than Amherst, MHC, etc., but William and Mary, Duke and Davidson, etc., might be a lot more comfortable for her physically and therefore socially. Best of luck!
I think this must vary. I went to a NE LAC and never went outside in winter except to go to class or eat or whatever. My D goes to one now and her winter activities are indoor volleyball and library and . There is an outdoor club that does ski trips and though she does snowboard, she has never felt the desire to do it there.
Notable also that Amherst is out of session from Dec 20-whatever until the end of January. So unless she wants to be there for January to do something, she won’t be there for one major winter month.
But there are plenty of good schools in warm places too…Emory and Vanderbilt (plus Davidson and Duke as you know).
But if nearby family is important (it was to us too) and Boston/Chicago fit, I don’t think it would be an issue at Amherst or the other schools in the consortium…unless she takes classes at the others and needs to take the bus, then she could be standing around in the cold.
I think, for us New Englanders, the first reaction is that we don’t routinely hang outside in the depth of winter. We bundle up. We have heat in buildings, on campuses they often have, as mentioned, tunnels, passageways or other that minimizes how long you’re outside between buildings.
Plus, the really cold weather isn’t usually til mid January, there are winter breaks in cold climes.
But not always. Many of us know our limits. You might go out to get the mail in your slippers
no jacket, because, what the hey, it’s just a few minutes.
Now you’ve got a kid not only with a condition, but little or no familiarity. What if she needs to wait for a bus? Or wants to watch an outdoor game? My kids ski, but didn’t during college. But there were outdoor college traditions.
Their freshman dorms were 5 minutes from the dining hall. Other years, it could take 10 mins or more. Some kids can plan to carry everything for the day when they leave in the morning. But it’s not unusual to head back during a break.
And I suspect her situation isn’t just being outside in the cold, but the amount of exertion in the cold. A former boss couldn’t easily walk to lunch meets, breathing in the cold air chilled his lungs.
It can be problematic down to Philadelphia. I like the idea of looking at DC, where she can train it up to CT or Boston. MA can be rough.
Draw a straight line from Chicago to Boston.
Stay south of that line, the further the better.
Tons of great schools in the northeast if you start at CT and then go south.
I disagree about Chicago being colder than Williams. It really isn’t very cold, and the campus is pretty compact, allowing you to get from point A to point B in a matter of minutes.
You don’t want to be messing around with McGill or Carleton, though.
Why all the opinions…just go to weather underground (or other weather sites) and look at historical data, otherwise known as factual data. Seriously, opinions on weather can be downright misleading. One persons shorts and tshirt weather is another’s parka and gloves weather. Bad idea to ask here on CC, your daughter could easily make a mistake and be home after one semester.
Average temperature in February:
W-town 25
Chicago 27
Amherst 29
Boston 31
DC 33
NYC 34
Phila 35
Note that those are averages, so you’d get lots of days with temps that are higher and lower.
For relative reference purposes, Hanover NH (i.e. Dartmouth, i.e. wicked cold) is average 23 in February.
Go south young woman!!
Wholeheartedly agree. Those are all COLD. Aside we were headed to Middlebury to do an info session and tour 2 years ago during student’s SPRING break. There was a roll over on 84 N because of an ice storm and we sat on the highway for over an hour and missed half the info session. My student told me if she had a chance to go to Pomona she would take it. I couldn’t disagree. If you can’t take the cold, there are plenty of warm weather options, like UCLA and Pomona.
@cafe9999 If she has a health condition related to cold, I would not consider a school in Massachusetts. You have to figure in wind chill also.
I don’t think that it’s worth risking your daughter’s health when there are other quality options in milder climates.
If you are looking for an academically rigorous experience, I thought of Rice University and the Claremont Consortium. There are also many less competitive LACs in southern California and the Pacific Northwest if you want to round out her list with some matches and safeties. Wash U in St. Louis might also be worth a look. The winters aren’t too extreme there. Ditto for Vanderbilt.
As an alumna, I do not think you need to be an outdoor enthusiast or play winter sports to enjoy Williams, although the natural beauty around it is part of the appeal. But it can be cold. Older buildings can be unevenly heated, and you need to walk outdoors between classes; there are no tunnels. It is not a huge campus, but I know that my dorms and classroom buildings had me trotting across campus several times a day. And there is a Winter Study term in January, unlike schools that get the month off. You should speak with your D’s doctor about what her restrictions should be in terms of degrees F and duration of exposure. Then compare that to how long it takes to walk from Garfield to Griffin or from Tyler Annex to the Science Quad, the longest distances she might walk. If the distances are within her limits for the coldest days of the year, it is a great place to go to school. If not, comparable schools in warmer climates might include Davidson in NC, or Washington and Lee or U of Richmond in Virginia, and the Claremont colleges in California. Larger schools in warmer places might be Duke, Emory, Vanderbilt, Rice, Tulane, College of William and Mary. Certainly there are many great colleges in warmer locations. Good luck!
I love cold and snowy winters. Winter is a close second as my favorite season to Fall. But if your child has health issues related to the cold (or has a very strong dislike of the cold/snow), I would suggest looking at schools in milder climates.