Litchfield County has the lowest UConn enrollment of all eight Connecticut counties. What about Storrs, CT is driving students away?

 

What do Colebrook, Kent and North Caanan, Connecticut have in common? They have the least number of students enrolled in the state's flagship university in Storrs, CT. For an interactive, responsive look at the 30 towns with the least enrollment click here.
What do Cole­brook, Kent and North Caanan, Con­necti­cut have in com­mon? They have the least num­ber of stu­dents enrolled in the state’s flag­ship uni­ver­si­ty in Storrs, CT. For an inter­ac­tive, respon­sive look at the 30 towns with the least enroll­ment click here.

In 2012, Cole­brook, Con­necti­cut—pop­u­la­tion 1,520—know for its quaint colo­nial archi­tec­ture and Algo­nquin State For­est might boast a clas­sic New Eng­land aes­thet­ic, but one thing they can’t claim are UConn students.

The Litch­field Coun­ty town is the only town in the state that in 2012 did not have any stu­dents enrolled in the state’s flag­ship uni­ver­si­ty in Storrs, CT, but this fact is unsur­pris­ing, con­sid­er­ing Litch­field Coun­ty has the low­est UConn enroll­ment of all eight Con­necti­cut counties.

Bren­don Field, a jour­nal­ism and polit­i­cal sci­ence stu­dent at UConn, grew up in New Hart­ford a sim­i­lar town that shares a North­west­ern Region­al High School with Cole­brook, Barkham­st­ed and Nor­folk. Field said that UConn is not a pop­u­lar school in Litch­field Coun­ty because of socio-eco­nom­ic divides in the area.

Litch­field County’s medi­an income is $71,345 a year accord­ing to 2010 Cen­sus data, which is sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er than the state’s medi­an income, $53,046. Field said that this eco­nom­ic advan­tage, many of his class­mates went to pri­vate schools because they could afford it.“I had a grad­u­at­ing class of just under 200 peo­ple and about 25 went to UConn,” Field said. “It wouldn’t sur­prise me because a lot of Litch­field Coun­ty towns you have a mix of peo­ple who are real­ly wealthy and real­ly poor and sev­er­al peo­ple who are on the fringes of the mid­dle class. Many kids didn’t have col­le­giate ambi­tion and those who did were often wealthy and would often go to pri­vate schools.”

A Private Culture

Litchfield County is Connecticut's largest geographic county, but has the lowest population density according to U.S census data. The low population density helps to account for the low numbers of Litchfield County students enrolled at UConn. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Litch­field Coun­ty is Con­necti­cut’s largest geo­graph­ic coun­ty, but has the low­est pop­u­la­tion den­si­ty accord­ing to U.S cen­sus data. The low pop­u­la­tion den­si­ty helps to account for the low num­bers of Litch­field Coun­ty stu­dents enrolled at UConn. Pho­to: Wiki­me­dia Commons.

Bryan Gre­gor, a senior Eco­nom­ics and Human Rights major from Barkham­stead, said that the socioe­co­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion in Litch­field Coun­ty is a fac­tor in why most stu­dents did not go to UConn, but also not­ed that many res­i­dents of the coun­ty attend­ed the high­ly acclaimed pri­vate schools in the area and were groomed for pri­vate colleges.

“I assume the aver­age income of fam­i­lies is high­er than in East­ern Con­necti­cut, so they [fam­i­lies in Litch­field Coun­ty] are able to pay for priv­et col­leges. There are a num­ber of pri­vate schools in the south­ern part of the coun­ty such as Taft in Water­town, The Gun­nery and My Dad lives right down the street from Hotchkiss, which is basi­cal­ly a feed­er school for Yale,” Gre­gor said.

Gre­gor said that less stu­dents enrolling at UConn isn’t an indi­ca­tion of lack of aca­d­e­m­ic ambi­tion in the coun­ty and region­al high schools, but that many peo­ple he went to high school with went to col­lege out of state.

Barkhamsted represents the greater Litchfield County in its historic, rural atmosphere- a factor which UConn seniro Bryan Gregor believes contributes to why students from Litchfield County pursue collegiate education out of state or in larger urban areas in state. Photo: williampitt.com
Barkham­st­ed rep­re­sents the greater Litch­field Coun­ty in its his­toric, rur­al atmos­phere- a fac­tor which UConn senior Bryan Gre­gor believes con­tributes to why stu­dents from Litch­field Coun­ty pur­sue col­le­giate edu­ca­tion out of state or in larg­er urban areas in state. Pho­to: williampitt.com

“I think it’s fair to say the aca­d­e­m­ic rig­or of UConn was thought of being stan­dard in my high school, but not every­one in my grad­u­at­ing class went or want­ed to go to UConn. Many want­ed to avoid it, it was the sta­tus quo. Litch­field coun­ty is very rur­al and I think a lot of peo­ple just want­ed to leave the state, even if the school out of state was infe­ri­or to UConn. That’s what my sis­ter did,” Gre­gor said.” I even think many of those in my class who decid­ed to go to school in state avoid­ed UConn because of how rur­al it is. A good num­ber went to Quin­nip­i­ac or CCSU. There are less tress there.”

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