Vassar College - Weather

Quick Stats

College Prowler Take

After a Poughkeepsie winter, 55-degree temperatures are a reason to go barefoot. The seasons are intense, and it gets just as hot as it does cold. Move-in day at Vassar is always sticky, and it doesn’t help that the dorms aren’t air conditioned. You will sweat for the first weeks of school. Unless you’re planning on taking four showers a day, bring a fan. Once the drier breeze settles in, autumn is spectacular. The entire quad becomes a Tiffany window: leaves fragmented and spread over the grass, inviting students to lie and study below the frames of trees.

Winter is a white wonderland. Temperatures hang well below freezing for most of the winter, and the thick layer of snow, with its squirrel-like paths carved between dorms for walking, remains until mid-April. The cold is long, but not unbearable, and it permits ample time to slide down the hill at Sunset Lake on a cafeteria tray, play Frisbee, or build something obscene and artistic out of snow. There are intermittent days of thaw throughout the winter months, and the dorms can get so hot with the boiling air pouring in through the vents, you’ll think that you go to school in Florida. When the long-awaited spring finally comes, it is soon unmistakable that it is really summer. The heat and humidity rush in, and the last few weeks of school are even more sweaty than the first were.

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Students Speak Out

Anonymous says:

Vassar, being an arboretum, is... Vassar, being an arboretum, is stunning in the autumn. The whole campus is orange and yellow and red and maroon, and it’s fabulous. However, it’s a long, cold winter. I come down with a strong case of the Februarys every year. The ground is covered in snow from November until late March, and you think you’re going crazy because you don’t see grass for months. 12345 Weather Report

Anonymous says:

The autumn is perfect, but the... The autumn is perfect, but the winter months are bitter. Bring heavy coats made of wool and stockings and hats. It snows a lot. In the summer, it gets pretty hot, so shorts are necessary. You get pretty creative with the crazy weather. 12345 Weather Report

Anonymous says:

It’s cold. On March 21st, it was... It’s cold. On March 21st, it was snowing. The weather patterns for the past three years have been fluctuating, so I cannot say what it’s going to be like next year, but it is quite cold, and it stays cold for over six months. Bring warm clothes. It’s not hard to get from place to place on campus, but heating in the dorms is not always reliable. Better to be prepared. 12345 Weather Report

Anonymous says:

Winters are really cold and dark.... Winters are really cold and dark. Bring warm clothing. 12345 Weather Report

Anonymous says:

The Hudson Valley is cold in the... The Hudson Valley is cold in the winter and nice in the summer. The arboretum makes campus really beautiful in the fall. 12345 Weather Report

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