What is climate in these parts of the US like?

I don’t know about the schools, but I know about the places.

Buffalo gets enough snow that when I lived in NH and we got 12–18 inches overnight, we felt lucky compared to them. I used to get my car buried by snow, but they could bury an entire house with one night’s worth. Still, Upstate NY is beautiful, and largely rural.

North Carolina and Virginia are also decent places with milder weather and pleasant people.

The rest of the places are ones that I personally would not even consider, but bear in mind that I am from the Northeast and have a thing against hot weather, overly religious people, and being surrounded by people that are even less like me than the natives of Singapore or Mombasa.

I lived in Manhattan, Kansas for half a year. In the winter it got bitterly, below-zero cold. In the summer it can get over 90+ degrees for months at a time http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan,_Kansas#Climate

That said, I liked living there. Lots of beautiful trees, hills (hard to come by in Kansas), and people were generally friendly.

www.weather.com and www.wunderground.com can give you monthly temp, rainfall and snow averages. There is a place you can change everything to metric. On the site if you prefer. Also, almost every city has its own website that will give you weather info usually.

Virginia Polytechnic and State University (at Blacksburg, Virginia) it can get kind of cold in blacksburg, but it should be beautiful there.

Texas A & M University (at College Station, Texas) If I am not mistaken it is near Houston? Very hot in the summer, very mild winter, with slightly cooler evening temperatures. Probably almost never gets snow is my guess. More humid than the majority of Texas. I would venture to say that much of the year it feels rather a tropical climate similar to southern Florida, with winters feeling like “springtime” for a few months.

North Carolina State University (at Raleigh, North Carolina) mild winter usually, probably better described as a short winter, as it can easily be at the freezing mark for a few weeks, but usually only for a few weeks, then it warms. Maybe a couple spells like that in a winter, coldest in January. When it snows it is very icy. Most of the American south is like this. But, snow and ice only comes in a few inches at a time maybe 2–4 times a year, and lasts a day or two and then everything melts again.

University of Arkansas (at Fayetteville, Arkansas) short winter, but can get very cold. Basically a little colder than a typical southern state.

State University of New York (at Buffalo, New York) Very cold long winter (typically November-April) with plenty of snow. It is in our “snow belt” being close to the Great Lakes and suffering from lake affect snow.

Oklahoma State University (at Stillwater, Oklahoma) Not sure

Kansas State University (at Manhattan, Kansas) Not Sure. I think of Kansas as being very windy? Think Wizard of Oz. But, that is probably during tornafo season, most likely April to June?

State University of New York (at Binghamton, New York) Will have four distinct seasons, winter won’t be as bad as Buffalo, but still there typically is a distinct winter with some snow. Not sure if it is part of the snow belt. It probably has a beautiful campus. Upstate NY is very pretty. But, I have never been to that campus or town, so I am not sure exactly what it is like.

Not only is the weather varied in these places, but the population will be different also. Some schools the people will be more liberal, some more conservative, not sure if that plays into your equation?

I wont bother with the weather as it seems to have been pretty well covered by the other jellies who answered but I can speak for UA Fayetteville a bit, they have some pretty good grad programs and the people are fantastic if you like friendly. Same thing for NCSU Raleigh although Raleigh/Durham is a larger metro than I like…...

I just reread your last part, and seems you did ask about life there, and employment opportunities. Is he an American citizen? Certain cities will have more opportunity for companies that employ noncitizens and facilitate the paperwork either because they have more multinational companies, or have a lot of the field of work that awards visas often. Cities along the coasts are more likely to offer these benefits. Also some universities are more recognized and held in higher regard around the country, depending on the major.

The south, Arkansas and North Carolina will be more conservative in their political views. I found Raleigh to be kind of boring, but many many people love going to school there, and the people are nice. Campus life might be great, I don’t know. There are three Universities very close together there, University of NC, NC state, and Duke, so probably it is good for college students. Raleigh is a medium sized city, it is known as the silicon valley of the south, with research triangle having many many tech companies.

Upstate NY will be a mix of people from political views to nationalities and ethnicities. It will help make connections in the northeast going to school there.

Kansas and Oklahoma will be less diverse, but very nice down to earth people.

Some of the schools have decent football teams if he is into sports?

Any way he can narrow to 2 or 3 and then visit the campuses before he decides? See what towns feel good to him?

At the same time I would not worry so much about where he might wind up living after school, but that he enjoys the school experience. That the campus is pleasant and is good for an older/grad student.

I have friends who are Colombian who went to grad school in New Hampshire, but moved to Florida afterwards. I grew up in the Washington DC area, went to college in Michigan, and then moved to Florida after graduation. The US is huge, it’s difficult to know where one might wind up.

I live about 30 miles north of Binghamton and the weather isn’t that bad. Yeah we get an occassional storm in winter, but the other seasons are awesome. It’s south of the snow belt too. Binghamton is a great school. Buffalo isn’t all that bad either. They get some lake effect storms that can be mean, but it builds character in anyone.:). Buffalo gets the most days of sunshine of any place in the state. Bet no one clued you to that fact.

Thanks everybody!
For one, I am not highly educated, and no way related to technical side of it. But, he is into it. He is out-of-state for all of the above grad schools. Also, I haven’t been out to these places. Yet, I am interested to offer him advice on his further studies.
It is my presumption that he will get employment where he gets his graduation. With that premise, the climate and other things will play vital role in his future life. And that he may decide it well in advance.
He is kind of a loner. That’s why I asserted on town over city life.
Thanks again and specially @JLeslie for spending time writing so much of advice. Well appreciated.

@shimba Where do you live?

The place where shimba dwells
starts with letter “A”
where air heals the sick
where four legged animal signals rain