University at Buffalo (average 10ft of snow per year) wins the prize for this one. Picturesque photos taken on THE sunny day on the front lawn of Hayes Hall. Hayes Hall is the ONLY picturesque building in the entire Buffalo system…and its 5 miles away from the main campus.
@STEM2017 Funny because for three years most of my classes were in Hayes Hall. During my years, 10 feet of snow would have been a light year. Spring was non-existent. Summer weather almost always began when we were cramming for finals. It was amazing how fast 5 feet or more of compacted snow melted during finals week. UB should show pictures of 6 months of thawed dog crap on campus for accuracy. My coldest day in Buffalo was in 77, a week before the blizzard. The wind chill was -63 F.
@Old_parent I challenge you to find a picture of snow anywhere on their marketing material. I guess its their four letter word. 
Actually, I found a snow photo…from 1959. In the “Campus Life” photo gallery…
Face it, Buffalo could be 72 & sunny every day of the year & it would still suck. -63 and snowy just makes it cold and sucky instead of just sucky. And this comes from a Detroit guy, and I know sucky when I see it.
@moooop I had no expectations for the school or it’s location. I don’t know how I developed expectations in the intervening 40 years for my daughter? Hopefully just a transient neurosis?
“I never did get the logic of the blue light thing – they all seem to be few and far between, and inconveniently located.”
Actually, at Trinity CT they seem to appear literally every 20 feet. That plus the sketchy neighborhood and several other things removed the school from contention quickly.
This spring break I visited my daughter at her school, which is about 4 miles from the beach. I was sitting on the beach and sent a text picture to my friend who was considering D’s school and said “you could be here next year.” She texted back that he’d just picked Buffalo.
I give him a year. He’ll be cold and lonely.
I visited RPI twice and did not like it either time. The campus was austere and dated. Buildings and poles littered with new and old announcements. The freshmen dorms were dark and unwelcoming. They announced the required Summer Arch program which was never mentioned during a recent tour or during the admissions process. They did a terrible job selling it. I am sure my son would have gotten an excellent education but it was not estetically pleasing nor did I think they were very organized.
The UW Madison viewbook has two snow pix and about 30 without any. It never rains. https://www.admissions.wisc.edu/assets/pdfs/UW_Viewbook.pdf
Wow, that makes it look like the biggest weather-related problems you might run into in Madison are a little sunburn on your shoulders when you wear a tank top to class in January, or maybe a little windburn on your cheeks from spending too much time in your sailboat in February.
Old but still good - honest college marketing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbsdlSpA2GU
Excuse me, but despite plenty of snowfall winters can have plenty of sunshine- unlike the warmer Pacific NW. Those lake effect snows dump a lot of snow in a short time period, like Florida rains and no constant drizzle.
My vote(s) for least favorite schools are those where it is too hot to spend time outdoors. Moved to Tampa- flat and hot too much (Indian H loves the heat, I prefer here to winters…).
Yeah, but the academic year runs from September thru April. And winter in Madison runs mid-September thru mid-April. So it might have warm sunny days, but the students don’t get to enjoy many of them
Winter weather does NOT run that long! Late September still can have very HOT days…Actually, not having ideal outdoor conditions makes it easier to focus on things, move faster, get things done.
A bit of clarification on the blue lights…the gold standard is that from every one of them you should be able to see another.
Winter in Madison is Nov to March. In September, kids are complaining about no A/C in the dorms or older apartments. On the plus side of winter in Madison, there is pond hockey on the Lake, ice skating etc. On the negative side, there is walking up Bascom Hill in negative temps. The pay off is the Terrace in fall and spring (and summer, for many students who work in Madison for the summer).
We’re getting sidetracked here in praise of our favorite, not LEAST favorite, school.
It is good that many schools are disliked and eliminated for whatever reasons because that means those that really want them have a better chance of going there. This thread is good for pointing out bothersome things that others can either defend, minimize or realize fall into line with their feelings/opinions…
Now we’re talking about the weather?! If we start playing “who died in the family this week” we know we’re in a time warp that has fast forwarded us to our 80s. Please restore my faith inhumanity and badmouth a school for our mutual pleasure. It may be the only thing that softens the blow of the first check I have to write in two months.
Fall is not the same as Winter. And embrace global warming.
We have been living at the mercy of schools’ judgements for at least a year now: Turnabout is fair play! Actually this thread makes me laugh aloud, which I need now that it’s over.
NYU–My connection to The Village is personal and poetic. Literally. As a student of Richard Howard’s, I visited his Washington Square apartment frequently until recently.
Previously, as a very young person, my first real freedom was spent with a camera around my neck snapping West Village street life in the late 70s, early 80s, when I lived on Hudson. Great experience.
So when S was ready to take flight, I naturally thought of NYU in Greenwich Village.
–But it is a different world, and nothing very literary about it. Crass real estate economics is more like it.
Our tour guides were mostly drama extroverts, which might have been fine, except academics played zero role in their appreciation of the school. The admissions person hardly spoke English, his grammar was terrible, and his talk was disorganized.
The formal presentation focused exclusively on selling us the AbuDhabi and Shanghai campuses as places to study. Nothing about the NYC campus AT ALL. We had the definite impression that the “New York” University part of NYU had been “shanghai-ed.”
That tells the story of our looming economic forecast as clearly and soberly.
S decided he wanted a more American college experience. He’s already well-traveled. Not saying we’re better–in fact we are a very internationally focused family–just saying how shocked we were. Off the list it went.