<p>D has been invited to go with a classmate's family to visit Univ of Hartford. I know nothing about the school beyond what's listed in its PR summary (and even that is minimal).</p>
<p>Is anyone familiar with this school?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>H and I are both alumni–graduated in the early to mid 80s and also got MBA’s there in the early 90s. We also grew up in the Hartford area. H got his Bachelors in Engineering. I got my degree from the Business school. U of H’s most prestigious program is the Hartt School of Music. The school is situated on the border of the north end of Hartford which was/is a rough area (although the campus itself was quite safe), and West Hartford, which is (especially the area near U-Ha, as we called it)an affluent suburb.</p>
<p>I don’t know how much stock you place on USN&WR, but in their rankings U. Hartford is a fourth tier school, and it is relatively generous with merit aid. As far as H and I are concerned, we got a good education there. However, the emphasis at U-Ha is, for the most part, pre-professional, as opposed to learning for learning’s sake. When I was growing up, it had a decent reputation in our area, although it wasn’t really known outside of the northeast. When we were there it attracted a lot of students from NY (esp. Long Island & Westchester county) as well as northern NJ.</p>
<p>I hope this helped. If there anything more specific that you’d like to know about the school, please feel to ask here or PM me if you’d like.</p>
<p>Thanks so much, as I said, I know nothing about U-Ha.</p>
<p>How would you describe the student body and the admin? Liberal? Conservative? Are there quirky or hipster student outside of the music school? </p>
<p>Is there a large commuter population? Are most students traditional-aged students? And among the residential students, do so many live nearby that the campus empties out on weekends?</p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that this is based on my time there, which was a while ago. I visited the campus a few years ago, with my oldest daughter, and I got the sense that the culture hadn’t changed all that much:</p>
<p>Other than some small pockets of students, mainly in the art school, or possibly in Hartt, there weren’t that many hipsters. I would also say that the majority of students were not very political. At the time I went there, there was a decent sized commuter population (including me). Most students were in the 18-22 yr. old bracket, although several of my classes would have a couple or a few non-traditionally-aged students. I wouldn’t say that the campus emptied out on the weekends, although (at least in my day) a lot of (on-campus) students had cars, so many of them would go off campus to go shopping, to the movies, out to dinner, etc. on the weekends, but not necessarily going back home for the weekend. Often there was a party or two going on in the dorms(this was back when the drinking age was 18). For all I know, though, perhaps they’ve beefed up the on-campus weekend programs.</p>
<p>Thanks. One more question - - since you mention cars, will a student w/o a car be seriously disadvantaged? Can a student walk or take public transit to movies, shopping, restaurants, etc.?</p>
<p>D is a high school student who takes music lessons at Hartt on the weekends, so I spend a fair amount of time wandering around campus when it’s nice out. The students I see walking around and in the library are college age and seem very pleasant and mainstream. There’s quirky/hipster but it seems outweighed by abercrombie/jock to my eye … but the hipsters may not be in the library on Sunday afternoon, either!</p>
<p>Lots of kids have cars but there’s also a shuttle to the mall etc.</p>
<p>While UHa is technically “near” a not-so-nice area, the immediate neighborhood is quite upscale and safe.</p>
<p>^This is where having more recent familiarity with the campus can help with the OP’s questions.;)</p>
<p>Regarding the neighboring communities, back when I attended U. Hartford, there used to be a back entrance to the campus–where the “Village” apartments (I think that’s the name of the complex, it didn’t exist when I went there…?)are now located and the area that was adjacent to that entrance was a rough area. However, as I mentioned in my previous post, the campus itself was very safe and I felt comfortable walking around it, day or evening.</p>
<p>Regarding cars: When I was at U-Ha there wasn’t a shuttle to the mall, but IIRC there was a shuttle to other campuses within the college consortium that U of H belonged to, including Trinity College. Also, U-Ha was along the CT transit busline into downtown Hartford. As I recall, while it was nice having a car, being without one is not a big disadvantage. Between the shuttles, the city bus, and getting rides from friends/acquaintances on campus, U-Ha students shouldn’t have much difficulty getting off campus.</p>
<p>My D was accepted and offered money. She is HS class of 2009. She was very excited until we went to an accepted student function. There were not enough seats even though it was held at a hotel. They ran out of soft drinks and snacks. However, what turned us off was the unprofessionalism of the overall presentation. The person leading it actually said that they had forgotten to ask current students to attend, even though it was spring break! The videos were professionally done but most of them focused on sports, parties and non-academic topics. My daughter was so unimpressed that she emailed her thanks but no thanks note the next day.</p>
<p>We did not visit the campus so I can’t comment on that.</p>
<p>Does anyone know how good the pre medicine program is here?</p>
<p>As a current Freshman at Uha, I’d say I have very mixed emotions about this school. My classes seem almost too easy. I feel as if I’ve gone down a notch from high school. This was my safety school but I loved it so much during the visit, I figured there would be no problems. I know that it’s early but even the class toward my major (Elementary/Special Ed.) is a joke. A lot of people here don’t seem very intelligent. I don’t know if it’s simply because of the education program or what. I know other programs, such as those in the Hart school are very rigorous and competitive.</p>
<p>One of my math professors didn’t know the difference between principle and principal. That was just a shocker for me.</p>
<p>Another thing is whenever I go to ask a question, no one seems to have the answer. There’s a LOT of miscommunication at this school.</p>
<p>When I visited Uhart, I was told that this was not a suitcase school. It DEFINITELY is. Because no one is here on the weekends, there’s never anything planned.</p>
<p>The meals plans are screwed up. I can only eat twice a day. There aren’t many options for meal plans. They serve a lot of the same thing all the time and on weekends there’s nothing open. You can’t even get a sandwich.</p>
<p>A lot of the students smoke and a lot of them seem to not care.
There are a lot of other problems too that I can’t think of.</p>
<p>I loved this school in the beginning and there are some things that I still love but I’m really considering transferring right now.</p>
<p>Ha, alisonangus, you would have been in my class, and I was almost an elementary ed major, but then I had switched to being an art major. (I ended up not attending for financial reasons; it’s complicated). Anyway, the Art school and Hartt school kids seemed smarter from orientation. However, they have the Hillyer kids, too, which might be the reason why everyone seemed dumb. </p>
<p>Now, I have my sights set higher, so I’m glad I’m not going. However, I wouldn’t hold the “principle/principal” thing against a professor. My boyfriend at UConn has a physics professor that makes physics-related mistakes, while my math professor (who also teaches at URI) is ALWAYS making mistakes on the board. I’m sure there are brilliant and not-so-brilliant professors everywhere.</p>