What are colleges that should be avoided by those who suffer from seasonal allergies? I’ve read that Eugene, OR (home of UofO) is particularly bad. Does anyone know of any other schools that are notoriously bad? Thanks!
I think it depends on your allergies. My S25 is very allergic to grass pollen so late spring in the PNW is awful. But when we lived in Massachusetts my hay fever was awful in late summer while he was fine.
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Definitely the worst is the southeast if you have tree pollen allergies. Here in the northeast i always tell college kids that they will have the pleasure of two spring pollen seasons if they go to a southern school, one at school and one when they return
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Yep, and as @helpingthekid73 referenced, the time of year that the geographic location is worst for people with those allergies.
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Just confirming what you have heard about Eugene. Friends’s daughter is having horrible allergy issues and now requires allergy shots for the first time.
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It really depends on your allergies, and the school calendar. For me, late summer and peak spring are the worst. I also seem to pick up new allergies everywhere I’ve moved!
So it depends on where you are, and when. For example, in cold-weather climates, spring semester often ends before spring blossoms are in full bloom, so someone with my allergies wouldn’t be affected as much, whereas in a more southern climate where spring comes earlier, I would be suffering.
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My daughter at Clemson gets hit hard, we’re in NJ.
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I was just in Eugene last week and confirm the grass pollen is off the charts bad. Worst allergies I’ve had in years.
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I live in Portland and so we always know kids heading to U of Oregon in Eugene; because that area of Oregon cultivates grass (for the grass seed market) and it’s the center of a lot of agricultural & forest areas, it is a rough spot for people who may have even a bit of hay fever.
The fall isn’t bad, but the spring is murderous, and because they’re on the quarter system that goes through mid June, things are rough from about March onwards.
We have two family friends who also are from Portland, who needed to get inhalers for the first time in their lives this year, after attending UO & encountering spring there - it’s just a 100 miles away but it’s substantially harder there. 
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Stanford can be really tough in spring. Ages ago, I was referred to someone at the hospital who started the visit with “Let me guess, you’re from the Northeast snd this is your first spring here.” The upside is I ended up in a trial for those (highly effective) nasal steroidal sprays that are now available without a prescription, and it was exactly what I needed.
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I lived near Eugene for several years growing up. My hay fever was never bad in Oregon, maybe because it rained often. When I moved to the UK many years later, I suffered almost unbearable hay fever for many years. Now I live in the Northeast, and my hayfever is better than when I lived in the UK and worse than when I lived in Oregon.
The moral is, I guess, that it depends on what the person is allergic to.
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Folks with severe allergies might want to try a semester at sea.
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Avoid places like this:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
But be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear.
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Though knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one that gave me itchy eyes
And that has made all the difference.
ETA: I’m sure most everyone knows that Frost wrote this poem (well all but one line… tee hee). But in case you did not, this is a work by the great Robert Frost.
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One of my students transferred out of Tulane as they developed a whole host of new allergies in NO. Allergies went away when they moved back to flyover country.
Could have been simply Mold. We’ve discovered that pretty much there is Mold everywhere in NO - a side effect to a year round warm/humid environment.
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An essay and discussion of that poem (minus your line) got me into governors honors. 
On a more serious note, as I’ve aged I’ve developed severe seasonal allergies. They are definitely more pronounced in some areas of the country and depend on the season for that geographical area.
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I feel like Missouri is awful
Missouri is really bad for mold, especially the St Louis area.
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Mine have been worse in Iowa and Wisconsin than they were in Colorado and Nashville
Mine are worse in Illinois and Michigan than Georgia, Florida, South Carolina. But it’s absolutely related to the time of year. I tried to avoid my southern allergies but haven’t found the right time. I’m adjusting!!! Trying to figure this out before I’m in full retirement mode.
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