Some UConn Graduates Don’t See Connecticut as a State of “Opportunity.”

 

UConn stu­dent Ellen Schroed­er does­n’t think that Con­necti­cut offers new grad­u­ates the same job oppor­tu­ni­ties that big cities do. Though she rec­og­nizes that she spent 3 years being edu­cat­ed in the state of Con­necti­cut, she feels that it is finan­cial­ly cheap­er and more oppor­tunis­tic to move out of state after col­lege. Ellen likes the qual­i­ty of life in Con­necti­cut, cit­ing the small town she grew up in, but at 20 years old she has debts to pay and can’t afford to main­tain the qual­i­ty of life that she’s used to. A trans­fer stu­dent from East­ern Con­necti­cut State Uni­ver­si­ty, Ellen “chas­es oppor­tu­ni­ty wher­ev­er it leads her” and if that hap­pens to be out of Con­necti­cut, so be it. More specif­i­cal­ly, she hopes to trav­el for a bit and then end up liv­ing in North or South Carolina

“I def­i­nite­ly know I don’t want to live in Con­necti­cut for the rest of my life,” she stat­ed. She is not alone in say­ing that she does­n’t want to live in Con­necti­cut… in fact, almost 50% of cur­rent CT res­i­dents want to leave the state, as shown in this Gallup poll. Job oppor­tu­ni­ties are just one fac­tor in regard to stay­ing in a state or leav­ing it; this poll shows that even the peo­ple who have jobs and cur­rent­ly reside in Con­necti­cut want to leave.

 

Could it be an eco­nom­i­cal­ly dri­ven response? When asked about the qual­i­ty of life in Con­necti­cut, this is what UConn stu­dent Ellen Schroed­er had to say:

“Too expen­sive and too small” is a good way to describe how many col­lege stu­dents feel about Con­necti­cut, espe­cial­ly hav­ing spent their 4 years of school­ing in Mans­field.  An arti­cle from USA Today list­ed Con­necti­cut as one of the top 7 most expen­sive states to live in, and as heard in this con­ver­sa­tion with Ellen it’s not exact­ly worth it. Young peo­ple, espe­cial­ly col­lege grads, want to get out and see the world.

 

When asked about job prospects, that did­n’t seem to be as big of a con­cern. The field that Ellen wants to go into, Allied Health, is a grow­ing field and is not a wor­ry for her. Her moth­er works as a Physi­cian’s Assis­tant in Con­necti­cut, which is the same path that Ellen hopes to take. See­ing the suc­cess that her moth­er has had makes her less wor­ried even if she does end up in Con­necti­cut for a year or two.

Though it’s still open-end­ed for Ellen and she has anoth­er year left to decide what she wants to do after grad­u­a­tion, she seems to have her heart set on leav­ing the state. She is not alone, and almost every­one that I’ve talked to here at UConn plans on leav­ing as well. The desire to trav­el, explore, and get out of your com­fort zone is some­thing that we all want as young col­lege grad­u­ates, and is some­thing that every gen­er­a­tion feels the need for as well. Though it may not be ben­e­fi­cial to the econ­o­my of our home state, I doubt that it’s some­thing that will change any­time soon.