A campus doesn’t have to have hills to be miserable in the winter! The architect who designed RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) set the buildings in such a way that the buildings created “Wind Tunnels” in the fall and winter, directing the icy blasts down between the walls, literally lifting you off of your feet and cutting through the heaviest down coat. Hills in the open couldn’t have been worse!
yep - parents comments
Guess none of you have been to West Virginia University, then!
What I found humorous was how so many disliked Tufts’ short steep hills but loved BC! It isn’t called the Heights for nothing! They obviously didn’t see upper or lower campus! I understand the dislike if you have mobility issues, but to cross a school off your list just for having hills appears to be extremely short sighted…
I think that big campuses, whether hilly or flat can pose issues in getting from place to place. Classes can be spread out, and the time to move from place to place may depend on a bus or really fast walking, even for a young person.
I had the “pleasure” of hiking up the hills of Cornell and the city of Ithaca in all types of weather, and it will last me the rest of my life. I made a real rookie mistake in looking at a map of the campus and picking west campus for my freshman housing back in the day. I did not realize that the seemingly shorter distance to the Arts quad from West meant conquering Libe slope in all types of weather. You live and learn.
My most memorable trip was down libe slope, I slipped on some mud in the snow melt, and slid for quite a ways and was covered in mud. I walked into the dorm and not a single person asked me what happened. Sigh. I showed with my clothes on first to get off as much mud as possible. A sheer joy I might add… 
At least when I was young I could hoof it. Now I am not so sure that I could walk from the downtown commons up to the Arts quad as I did on some weekends back in the day. I even did it a few years ago on a visit, but I don’t think I could do it now.
I have been to Lehigh, and I did note that even based on my past experience the hill seemed formidable. I thought Lafayette was on some portion of a steep hill as well. I have been to Tufts, but I must have missed those hills, as I don’t remember any. I have been to UCLA, but have not been all over campus. I do remember some steps, but those did not stick in my mind as formidable. I probably didn’t see them. I love LA and though UCLA would be a wonderful spot to attend college, so many advantages both on and off campus. AND the weather is so nice.
I don’t mind some gentle elevation but I don’t like steep hills. A spread-out hill seems t o be ideal IMO. If there are steep hills, going down is worse than coming up!!! There’s always someone behind me that makes me feel like I’m about to be run over. That’s the worst. Hills=Stress.
Bathmophobia or Climacophobia!
I went to Cornell. I lived in West Campus all four years. (Those of you who are familiar with the campus know what this means. For those of you who aren’t: It means climbing a steep hill to get anywhere.)
Each year, I would fall on the ice and hurt myself at least once per winter. It never happened on the hill.
Maybe it’s because I’m from a fairly hilly area of New Hampshire, but these concerns about a sprained ankle and hills just seem excessive. People in NH get injured, and yet they survive.
My D complained a great deal about the hill at Lehigh during our visit but she was not happy that we were even visiting the school (she only wanted t look at LACs but we took her to Lehigh so she could see one bigger school since we were nearby). She was looking for every possible reason to cut the Lehigh visit short. Ironically she is at Lafayette now…there is a big hill to get to campus (which she has walked to get into town and back) and there is a hill to the fitness center which she goes down with no complaint when she does the rock climbing wall.
UCLA has one bit set of steps leading from the main quad down to the parking garage and the athletic fields. Otherwise the campus is much more compact than most.
I’m not sure I would even have realized Tufts was hilly if they didn’t refer to the dorms as being on the lower or upper campus. My son dormed at the top of the hill the first year, the bottom of the hill the second and smack in the middle in the third. Thanks to the hill the campus has a fabulous view of Boston. http://tuftsjournal.tufts.edu/2009/01_1/features/04/
The U of South Carolina campus is fairly flat and very walkable, but it slopes away sharply on two sides. Snow and ice isn’t a problem there, but the heat and humidity can make the inclines uncomfortable (parents’ perspective). An upside: When horrible (and very unusual) flooding hit last fall, the campus was barely affected because it’s at a higher elevation than most of the area–including, most significantly, the river. So hills can be useful!
Like @usualhopeful, I am from an area with a lot of hills and a lot of winter. I wonder if a lot of the complaints about hilly campuses are from flatlanders. I’ve visited a few campuses that were completely flat and from my perspective they were really boring. I like some variety to the terrain.
@doschicos I’ve wondered the same thing about relative hill perception. People from our part of the country (west coast) go to Boston to run the marathon, and some have had to clarify afterward where “Heartbreak Hill” is on the course, considering that is it significantly smaller than the most significant hill on our local marathon course, which doesn’t rate a name other than the name of the street. But, I haven’t been to these hilly East Coast schools, so I don’t know.
Anyplace that ever has snow is “a lot of winter” to us, and my kids would need to learn how to walk to class on ice (they’ve only done it in ski books).
Northwestern is very flat, fwiw. I can’t think of any real hill anywhere.
However, in snowy climates, they do salt, shovel and plow. You might find ice patches but it’s not like you are walking on top of sheets of ice!
I went to a school in Florida with a flat campus. I guarantee the kids walking the “hills” of New England campuses are sweating less on their walks to class than the Florida students. It would be 95-100 degrees and I would have to walk a long way to go from class to class with the sun beating down on me. So hot! Maybe I should start a thread called " Heat Exhuastion Phobia" for those schools down south 
Appropriately enough for this thread, my D at UCLA lives in a section of campus called “The Hill”. There’s a couple dorms up at the top of a long and steep hill. Anyway, she has a fitbit and logs about 5 miles a day getting around to class and back, so a lot depends on where your dorm is and which buildings your classes are in. I think my D just got unlucky with having her dorm and classes be at the furthest possible extremes on the campus (plus the hills and steps).
The UCLA tour skips the dorms, so parents of kids with mobility issues/concerns should take a walk over to the dorm area after the formal tour to get the lay of the land. The dorms with suites are the ones up on the top of the hill, standard dorms and plazas are lower down and closer to the main campus.
@RightCoaster I guess I suffer from a humidity phobia.
The humidity can really mess with your hair.