It's hard for me to pick a star rating for these, because there are pros and cons.. I looked at my history and I purchased a pair in November 2014 and then in November 2015. For some reason, I thought I'd had the first pair for longer, but I guess not!If you're looking at a calendar, you may note that I seem to go through one pair of these per year. But, I live in Chicago, and I don't have a car; that means that in the winter, I'm wearing these to and from work, and additionally, I'm often wearing them on any errands that involve walking outside in the winter when there is snow on the ground. On the least active days, I was still putting a mile on them; if I was doing a lot of errands, many miles. And they were quite comfortable for walking, especially when I first got them. I think these would last the average car-driving person at least two winters.A big PRO is the price. Looks like I paid $40 each time, but now they are down to $30.Another Pro is that they are good in "dry" snow. Caked on the sidewalk, frozen over and gray, these are good in it.But the slush. I pulled these out for the first time this winter on a snowy, slushy trip to the zoo. My feet were soaked when I came home, and so were the shoes. I pealed this bad boys off at 9pm and when I went to put them on the next morning at 7am, they were still very wet. (I didn't end up wearing them and put on some rainboots instead).They are absolutely not waterproof. I think since I wore them out last winter, they are probably less water-resistant than they would have been, but even when new, they were not waterproof.This wetness also resulted in stinkyness. I remember the main reason I replaced the first pair: They smelled. But if you can avoid using these in slushy snow, you won't have that problem.Overall, great boots for the price, but if you will be trudging through sludgy snow, go for the next boots.Final tip: I got these in black initially because I thought the white would get dirty, but with all the salt, the white ones actually look cleaner!