Wellesley CollegeWeather Summary

Students clearly hate Wellesley winters: They're cold, snowy, and depressing. It gets dark at 4:30 p.m., you have to wrap yourself in layers until your arms stick straight out from your sides, and it takes a half-hour to get warm after five minutes outside. Some years, winter arrives in October and stays until April, and everyone despairs that the gray will never go away. Then suddenly it's May, the non-air-conditioned dorms are saunas, and it seems like everyone goes from cold and irritable to sticky and irritable.

So, yes, New England winters are rough, but fall is gorgeous, and spring makes you believe that all good things are possible. The first days that you can smell spring in the air, everyone walks around grinning, wearing as little clothing as possible. But if you bring a really great jacket and some boots that can handle scandalously unsalted sidewalks, you'll be alright. Just keep something pretty and small hanging up in your closet to look at when the weather gets really bad. Then, sometime in May, you'll finally be able to wear it.