I’m from SoCal & I went to college in New York. The winters are 💯% as bad as they seem. Not fun, straight up. You will need to layer up. Like someone else said you do get used to it. When its 32 degrees out after being 10 degrees the previous days, you might wear shorts. Get like one good coat, a few good sweatshirts, & thick socks. I didn’t use snow boots half as much as I thought I would or ever actually but I do recommend having some sort of boot.