ok so this doesn’t directly answer the question you posed, but it’s just too freakin interesting not to share!
there was a psych study conducted that examined if environmental (“incidental”) factors affect college admission staff’s decision to accept/reject applicants. they found that on sunny days the staff gave higher ratings and accepted more students with a stronger extracurricular background (e.g., clubs, sports, etc.), while on cloudy days they accepted more with a stronger academic background (e.g., GPA, SAT scores, etc.). the idea is that sunny days make people happier and in a more active mindset, while cloudy days make people more pensive and academically minded…so it seems even people who should be experts, and not influenced by such incidental factors as cloud coverage, are affected by their moods.
the moral of the story: if you’re academically strong, apply to washington state. if you’re extracurricularly strong, apply to florida state!
Source: Simonsohn, U. (2007). Clouds make nerds look good: Field evidence of the impact of incidental factors on decision making. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 20, 143–152.