UConn does indeed have a lot of top notch scholars, but for the most part as a UConn student you won’t have access to them in your freshman or sophomore years.

As a student at any public higher educational institution in Connecticut, your classes are the same regardless whether you start out at community college and transfer to a four year university or if you start right at UConn. At UConn as a freshman or sophomore, you are literally paying $30,000 per year as a in state student to take the exact same classes, using basically the same exact textbooks, in a lecture hall with 300 other students learning the exact same material than you would at community college except your not paying anything because we have free community college for in state students and instead of being in a lecture hall with 300 students your in a class with 20-25 students and you actually can speak with your professor during office hours instead of waiting a week to speak to a T.A. at UConn.

And honestly, the liberal arts and social sciences programs are better at ConnCSU than at UConn for undergrad. If I had a child in college who wanted to major in English or become a teacher, I would tell them to go to CCSU. It’s much more affordable, class sizes are much smaller, and you have more employment opportunities than you would at UConn if you plan to stay local. On the other hand, if I had a child in college who wanted to obtain a degree in the sciences or a mathematics degree, UConn is obviously the better option.

It depends heavily on your major and what your priorities are in choosing your school especially as a undergrad. I think it’s insane that UConn students who attend all four years of undergrad have to take on $120,000+ in expenses now. I personally don’t see much value in that especially in your first two years where there is literally no difference in your classes and quality of your education between UConn and community colleges. But some people value “the college experience” and they really want to go to a big university with D1 sports and something going on all the time even if it will close them $60,000 extra to do it. It’s a legitimate value but not one that I or a lot of people share.