Add my LOL. It’s cold. No one really fusses whether one location is 8 degrees versus 12. It’s all cold. We get excited on the days when it randomly hits over 32 for a few hours and have quirky responses, like seeing people in shorts.
All the colleges have heat. Kids might walk to the dining hall, library or back to their dorms, but they bundle up. We Northeasterners (not just New England) tend to stay indoors more in winter. In a group context (college, work, etc,) it leads to interesting interpersonal engagement.
In reality, it’s not so bad here until late January, through Feb. The ground needs to freeze before it’s so tough.
ps. It gets cold in CA, you know. There are mountains there and one visit to Big Bear was the most snow overnight I’ve ever seen. The toilets froze. This idea CA is only sunshine is limited.
Sorry at @goldentrees100 , no condescension intended.@MWolf is correct, we are just amused at the minutia.
I was born and raised on the West Coast, mostly SoCal. You will be able to handle it, trust me. I truly would not discount any of those colleges based on weather. D attended a NESCAC in Maine. Her friends are from Florida, Hawaii, and Tunisia. If they can handle it, you can too, lol.
Re the scale of preppiness, I agree also that Wes is least and Trinity is most. I guess I’d put Bates and Amherst in the middle?
It appears the OP may have interpreted comments in the second reply as condescending. However, some subsequent comments essentially told the OP how to interpret raw data, or directed her as to which books might be suitable. This could also be interpreted as condescending, as well as censorial.
@twoinanddone Nope. I’d add Vineyard Vines maybe but not really preppy). Definitely not Lululemon. Most prep schools have a dress code and the lululemon’s are limited to afterschool activities. But Lululemon does have a men’s brand of leggings and stuff. I did laugh a bit when I saw it. I think it’s an East Coast/ West Coast thing? Or maybe I could picture folks who bicycle wearing this gear. Definitely not anyone on any campus. Would NOT put that in the preppy category, even the ladies stuff ( more of a millenial thing). Least I haven’t seen it on the campuses we visit. My 9 nephews would never wear that either. But I have seen it more on their college girlfriends. YMMV.
BTW, OP it snowed about 3" in MA. Sitting by the fire now. I agree with other posters that folks get around the weather in the cold climes. I didn’t see anything condescending in any of the posts just data. But I guess you wanted the data in a different form.
Oct 31, 7:31 am, and it’s 32 in Boston and south down to Providence. Meanwhile, 35 in Portland, ME. It’s all cold. And beautiful, as everything is still covered in snow. (Except the roads.) Will be back up to the mid-50s in a few days. This time of year, we get lots of mixed weather, which softens the blow, so to say, gets us used to it in small doses.
We just had a thread covering this idea preppi-ness dominates and it just doesn’t. Kids have evolved in their own ways, per their interests. When D1 (hs 09) started, Uggs and Northface were popular, LLBean lace-up boots. Then that declined. (Bean boots and warm fleece will always play a role.) Lululemon is still attracting buyers in lots of places, but let’s face it: they’re expensive and lots won’t play that status game.
If you understand the NESCACs, there’s strong emphasis on academics. On the other thread I referred to a tour guide with the pink/green belt and distinctly “preppy” attitude: yup, that was Trinity. But that was more than 10 years ago.
Imo, “preppy” is a style or manner, maybe attitude. It’s not “went to a private hs.”
@lookingforward Agree. I think kids are very interested in what they like. There was a whole discussion on Canada Goose coats last year. While they aren’t preppy, they are something that connotes status even if they are thrown in a pile in the student center.
I’m older but the two things I will forever think of as preppy are Nantucket red pants from Murrays Toggery and Brooks Brothers holiday men’s pants with embroidered holly leaves. Whenever I see either, I immediately think that person must be old money. LOL. For women, it would be Lily Pulitzer dresses and some types of shoes. For teens, old sweaters with school names. . Definitely can be adapted as interest demands. For me, preppy does relate to prep schools. But I have seen many non-prep school folks adopt this clothing style.
Red pants! We always thought of them as another part of the East Coast, out of the northeast. Lol, yes, if you want to seem old money, hey, go buy a pair of them or the holly. A lot less expensive than living the full lifestyle. But I imagine, at a NESCAC, you’d get some odd looks.
Our status-y thing was ripped or very worn out jeans (before this newfound popularity, where machines make the tears) worn with an expensive wool pullover sweater. This is silly, but I thought of that as very “Princeton.”
Thing is, I know some gals my D1’s age who are still rather Lily Pulitzer or Talbots. But not NESCAC. Or not day-to-day. Maybe when off to dinner with their parents-?
Sorry I just went OT. But kids today are freer to express themselves- and do.
Being able to bear a northern New England winter should be a point of pride for anyone. For those of you not used to cold weather, you’d be surprised at how your body adjusts to it.
The same may be true of hot weather. I will never know.
Probably the most vivid memory I have of my college years in Maine is walking around in shorts because (hallejulah) it just hit 40 degrees. That is a feeling like no other.
“Probably the most vivid memory I have of my college years in Maine is walking around in shorts because (hallejulah) it just hit 40 degrees. That is a feeling like no other.”
Oh, how I love this. You will never love spring more than after a Maine winter!
Much of the opinion on this thread seemed to depend on geographical boundaries. For example, the difference in temperature between Colby and Connecticut College (13°) compares to that between Dartmouth and Princeton (14°). But the first two are in the same geographical region, so their difference was largely disregarded. However, I doubt a similar subjective interpretation would have been applied to the difference between Dartmouth and Princeton.
The main reason decimals were introduced was because @MWolf seemed to indicate a sincere interest in the difference in temperature between Middlebury and Bates. Those who assumed there’d be no math could have skipped the post, of course.
The daily high temperature commonly occurs closer to solar noon than to sunset.
I went to a NE school and knew plenty of people there who had never seen snow. They all survived. Those of us who had grown up in NE explained about boots and coats. There isn’t enough of a difference, if you’re coming from CA, to base a decision on the weather. So pick the schools you like for other reasons and good luck! There will be someone on your floor who’s more than happy to take you shopping for snow survival clothing!
Note that the OP hasn’t said she would like to avoid cold or snowy weather. She may be seeking one or both of these characteristics. Her most clearly stated request was for information.
To the point made by @merc81 above, cold and particularly SNOW are features that DS actively sought in his college search. His preference was formed early while attending school in hot, muggy, season-less Houston.
His eventual choice of Hamilton should certainly deliver in that regard.
"The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment, where is it to be found?”
Yes, snow can be magical especially on a New England college campus. Especially the first snowfall. It’s late March and April snow that brings sighs. Always fun to see kids on campuses who have never seen snow/the ocean. They are often “geared up” while the other kids walk around in shorts. I’ve never understood the short thing. It’s definitely not a status thing but kids wear shorts most days. Mine have worn shorts when it’s 30 degrees. Crazy. Shorts and LL Bean Duck boots and shorts are common in bad weather. So weird.
You do get used to cold weather.
Amherst College had their first snow fall yesterday which prompted me to look at the other NESCACs to see if they posted snow on their social media. Everyone but
Bates, Middlebury, Hamilton, Bowdoin, posted snowy pics.
The last couple of years we have been at Amherst for Family Weekend. The first was freezing and rainy with no snow. Last year was gorgeous Fall weather good enough to wear a skirt.
I was joking…laughing at the notion that no matter how serious the inquiry, it is more efficient to search for information online than it is to trust the biased, random opinions and impressions of other. I don’t generally do free research for others, but if you enjoy it…go get 'em.
With regard to temp, while radiation is highest at solar noon, the trapped heat and continued sunshine push the high temp on most days to several hours later. Below a links to historical temps for the closet locations the Hamilton and Colby. If you look at the daily temps for January (2020, I didn’t look at anything else), you will note that on most days (those without precipitation/winds/frontal systems), the temp increases from Noon until around 3PM…when the angle of the sun prevents additional heating and the captured heat fades.
Respond if you like…I will not be posting again on this thread. I spent a lot of time outside in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom growing up, and you learn real quick when the temps drop.
