<p>I say, if you think it will disrupt your studies and you think you would do better and be happier with milder weather, go for it. I’ve lived in southern california and will probably not apply to any school in the midwest(although maybe one or two on the east coast). There are many great schools in mild climates(like USC, UCLA, UCSD, Berkley, etc.). Actually there are a lot of schools in California… or you could also go a little further down along the east coast(like Virginia) for at least a little less bad weather. My parents used to live in Chicago and went to college nearby so I know at least a little bit about the horrible weather. Make sure to check out the schools first though. :)</p>
<p>Since there are so many colleges in so many different geographic regions, why not narrow the list by virtue of weather? My daughter wants a school with lots of rain and snow, probably because she’s lived her whole life in sunny SoCal. Since that doesn’t limit her choices, why not? Anyone wanting sun has just as many choices (on either coast). I think we all agree that kids are applying to too many colleges, so if you can limit your choices by any valid category, you should.</p>
<p>I live right outside Chicago and the temperature right now is minus 5 degrees and the wind chill is in the minus 20’s. This is for those of you advising that weather should not be a factor in OP’s decision. <g></g></p>
<p>Weather is HUGEEEE for me. I came from California to Minnesota and I hate the weather. It honestly makes me not want to get up in the morning to walk in the negative degree weather. I donno thats jus me. I like warm and sunshine every once and a while you kno? it’s good for the soul!</p>
<p>I live in the south where the weather frequently reaches above 105 degrees Fahrenheit with absolutely unbearable humidity during the summer, and cannot stand the weather at all; when newscasters in summer talk about how we have a “nice, sunny day” coming up, I want to scream at their face. I prefer cold and wet weather, silver skies, and coniferous trees (basically the Pacific Northwest climate) and heavily dislike sunny days–for me, they have always meant hellish temperatures with unbearable humidity. I could definitely be happy and content in an environment most people would see as “depressing”, though I don’t feel that kind of climate is depressing at all, and usually feel the opposite about climates stereotyped as “paradise” as I would hate living in a warm area by the beach.</p>
<p>If I attend my state school, I can assure you it will not be for the weather. However, ultimately weather is medium in my priority list. Remember, you can move wherever you want after school–consider that when choosing.</p>
<p>I hate the cold, and the perfect chance to get away from it would have been to apply to a school on the west coast, but I fell in love with an east coast school. Also, I love my boyfriend, and decided that being close to him was worth “limiting” my college options. In the end, it just depends on which things are most important to you.</p>
<p>For many students, weather should absolutely be a factor (though not the driving factor). Why be miserable or even less than fully happy when there are some many good college choices out there? </p>
<p>Ask yourself a few questions, like:</p>
<ol>
<li> Do you like wearing sandals and a skirt or shorts for large parts of the school year or do you prefer to be wrapped up in ski parkas and woolly sweaters?<br></li>
<li> When March 1 rolls around, do you want to go out and hit some golf balls or some tennis balls or maybe play a game of ultimate Frisbee on the green grass that is actually growing? Or would you rather be perfecting your snowboarding skills for most of the school year? </li>
<li> Do you like greenery on the trees and flowers? When would you like it and for how much of the school year would you like it? </li>
<li> Do you enjoy the idea of spending your (potentially long) winters in the bowels of the library or do you want to be outside studying under a tree?</li>
<li> Do you plan to attend summer school? If so, then the summer weather is also important. But if summer school is not part of the plan, do you really care how nice it is in upstate NY in June or how hot it is in NC in July?</li>
</ol>
<p>Weather should be a factor.
I grew up in Chicago, and didn’t think about weather when I went to university in Ottawa. While winter isn’t that much harsher than Chicago, it lasts longer and there is more snow. I am not a winter sports/ outdoor person, and I found the environment very depressing. I wouldn’t wish my experience on anyone. </p>
<p>I think that there are enough good universities in areas with more moderate weather, that if you don’t like winter, you should consider the climate–especially if after college you want to work and live in an area that has better weather.</p>
<p>im a freak – i love chicago weather</p>
<p>Weather is all about the person themselves. You could go to Harvard but do horrible because you can’t get accustomed to the change in climate (weather or otherwise).</p>
<p>I already know I’m spoiled - San Diego literally has the best weather (the average high “fluctuates” from 65-75*F the entire year) in the continental U.S. If you like consistently sunny, mild weather, San Diego is the place to go. Living here my entire life, it’s going to be a bit of a shock to possibly see real snow on campus or have a year with over 24" of rain, but I’ve gone away from home to these climates enough to learn to deal with them.</p>
<p>If you want better weather, there’s plenty of great places to go. You shouldn’t immediately discard a place just because of the weather (unless it absolutely sucks) if it has other traits you really enjoy and would like to have in a college. Once you actually get accepted to a couple places, then you should really start thinking about what living at a place for 4+ years will be like, including the weather. There’s a reason when Caltech made a [pranked</a> version](<a href=“http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2007/caltech_tech/]pranked”>IHTFP Hack Gallery: Parody of The Tech distributed by Caltech students) of MIT’s Tech, they put this for the weather section:
<a href=“ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs”>ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs;
and this just happens to be the most recent weather report in the Tech:
<a href=“ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs”>ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs;
<p>As a Northeasterner attending Rice (Houston), I can honestly say that my college experience would be a thousand times more miserable if I went to a school with the same weather as my hometown. Schools give you summers off, not winters, so if you go to a warm-weather school you’ll avoid the worst heat, but if you go to a Northern school you’re just missing out on the few nice months they have. Probably more people * should * consider weather in their decision.</p>
<p>sorry to hijack this thread, but I too am a bit concerned about weather. I’m applying to all Midwestern schools though based on my qualifications and desire not to move too far from home. Are there any Midwestern areas known for a bit milder weather, less hot and humid summers or less freezing, snowy winters perhaps?</p>
<p>Okay. It’s been raining in “sunny” SoCal for just about an entire week.</p>
<p>I think the clouds are trying to say something. If you let weather be the only thing, you’ll get bad karma :-P</p>
<p>You absolutely should. The South is where you should go.</p>
<p>Tyler-
People choose schools for any of a variety of reasons, and weather is just as legitimate a reason as the next. You have to narrow your choices down somehow, and whatever is important to you is as valid a reason as the next. Don’t let people dissuade you from considering something that is clearly important to you. Being able to get out in to the sunshine is important, and college is a fun but sometimes stressful time. Maximizing the good things is important. People narrow down their list based on size, location, urban/rural whatever. Weather is equally valid. My younger s made this a criteria, and while I initially thought it was a lower prioroty in my book (having gone to schools in both the North and the South, I found it easy to adapt to both), but I came to realize that this was important to him. The tough thing to find were the other variables that he was looking for-- as what he wanted seemed to sound like many of the LACs in the NE. So, he did his HW and researched schools in the SE and in So Cal. There are lots of great schools outside of the North. Good for you for knowing what you want.</p>
<p>Yes, I agree with SoCal18. Pick a place where you’ll enjoy living. College is about a lot more than academics. It’s not uncommon for local job opportunities to pop up during your undergrad years, so you want to be in an environment where you want to spend time. </p>
<p>It’s probably hard for you to believe, now, but you might even start to miss the seasonal changes. Dude, we have like 2 seasons in NoCal…Rain and Summer. 
Oh, and earthquake season, which is usually in October. :D</p>
<p>sluggy-
My s decided against the so cal schools-- he said the 4 seasons were earthquakes, fire, mudslides and wind!</p>
<p>1 Whitman College </p>
<hr>
<p>2 Brown University </p>
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<p>3 Clemson University </p>
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<p>4 Princeton University </p>
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<p>5 Stanford University </p>
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<p>6 The University of Tulsa </p>
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<p>7 The College of New Jersey </p>
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<p>8 Bowdoin College </p>
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<p>9 Yale University </p>
<hr>
<p>10 Thomas Aquinas College </p>
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<p>11 St. Mary’s College of Maryland </p>
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<p>12 Claremont McKenna College </p>
<hr>
<p>13 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill </p>
<hr>
<p>14 Brigham Young University (UT) </p>
<hr>
<p>15 William Jewell College </p>
<hr>
<p>16 Indiana University at Bloomington </p>
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<p>17 Wabash College </p>
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<p>18 Loyola Marymount University </p>
<hr>
<p>19 Saint Olaf College </p>
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<p>20 University of Notre Dame </p>
<hr>
<p>Thats princeton’s list of the colleges that have the happiest students. I think the fact that 14 of the 20 schools listed here are located in relatively cold areas ( and some really cold like Brown, Yale and Bowdoin ) says something.</p>
<p>Also Boston is internationally know as the best possible college town and location. Boston is really really cold. That too says sometimg</p>
<p>1 State University of New York–Stony Brook University </p>
<hr>
<p>2 New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology </p>
<hr>
<p>3 United States Merchant Marine Academy </p>
<hr>
<p>4 University of Hawaii at Manoa </p>
<hr>
<p>5 New Jersey Institute of Technology </p>
<hr>
<p>6 Fisk University </p>
<hr>
<p>7 Illinois Institute of Technology </p>
<hr>
<p>8 Clarkson University </p>
<hr>
<p>9 Tuskegee University </p>
<hr>
<p>10 Albion College </p>
<hr>
<p>11 University of California–Riverside </p>
<hr>
<p>12 State University of New York at Albany </p>
<hr>
<p>13 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute </p>
<hr>
<p>14 Drexel University </p>
<hr>
<p>15 Hofstra University </p>
<hr>
<p>16 Hanover College </p>
<hr>
<p>17 George Mason University </p>
<hr>
<p>18 University of Toronto </p>
<hr>
<p>19 Case Western Reserve University </p>
<hr>
<p>20 University of Massachusetts–Amherst </p>
<p>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thats the list of schools that have the least happy student</p>
<p>17 of the above 20 are in cold areas. So yea you could say that weather does make a difference in the overall college experience…but i doubt it makes that much a difference</p>
<p>I guess I am a typical Southern Californian, because the first thing I thought when i read this thread was “What’s wind chill?”</p>
<p>Honestly, being from San Diego, the weather is pretty nice during the spring, summer, and fall. Not so much during the winter, but I’m sure you can handle it being from Chicago and all (no snow here!). Honestly though, I’m pretty sensitive to the cold and still applied to places that were in relatively cold areas (ie Boston College), so I don’t think it should deter you from applying initially, especially if it’s a school that you want to go to. You always have until May 1 to decide whether it’s worth to you personally to go to nice-weather college or colder college, assuming that you applied to both and got in. </p>
<p>I agree with the other posters in saying that while weather is a generally important factor, it definitely depends on the individual person. In your case I would say, if you feel that nice weather is a big priority, maybe more so than other factors, then don’t apply to any schools in cold places. On the other hand, places that are lauded for their excellent weather (ie San Diego) may not always live up to people’s idealizations of them.</p>