Small colleges in Connecticut are a great option for students interested in a more intimate campus experience, more personal attention from excellent professors, and more immediate access to support services. Whether the focus is on the technical or on the liberal arts, small colleges give you the chance to pursue a well-rounded education while working closely with classmates and professors in a dynamic community atmosphere.
As the fourth oldest learning institute in the United States, Yale enrolls just over 15,000 students at its New Haven campus. Higher education in Connecticut includes both public and private institutions that offer associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. With 19 public schools and 20 private schools, students have a variety to choose from. Tuition for most of the state’s community colleges averages $4,000, while the cost for other public schools ranges from $8,000 to $16,000.
Students interested in psychology, economics, and communications can check out the University of Connecticut (UConn), which is home to the premier research institute for ecological psychology. Sacred Heart University, a Roman Catholic university, is known for its religious studies and business programs. And those looking for a smaller student population may want to check out Manchester Community College, which enrolls about 4000 students and offers affordable degrees in literature, biology, and social work.
Students in Connecticut can choose from a variety of higher education experiences fitting a full spectrum of budgets and career goals. Learn more and begin earning your degree from one of Connecticut’s top colleges or universities.
The following list of the best small colleges and universities in Connecticut is composed mainly of four-year undergraduate schools (though a handful also offer graduate programs). We’ve identified 13 small colleges in Connecticut; the top 8 schools satisfy our criteria. The list below of the best small colleges in the state satisfies the following four conditions:
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why, at the undergraduate level, we rank the best colleges and universities based on what we call “Concentrated Influence”. Concentrated Influence takes the combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers (including faculty and alums) and divides it by the school’s total number of undergraduates.
Using concentrated influence gives small and mid-sized schools an opportunity to shine by taking away the size advantage of larger universities. A small school with proportionately more influential faculty than a large school, whose influence in absolute terms may be bigger, will nonetheless score higher in a concentrated influence ranking. Our approach highlights undergraduate schools that truly rank for excellence, regardless of size.
If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
21%
Graduation
91%
Student body
4K
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Wesleyan University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
38%
Graduation
82%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1380/31
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Connecticut College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
36%
Graduation
82%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1374/30
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Trinity College ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$51K
Acceptance
56%
Graduation
82%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1280/28
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Fairfield University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Acceptance
20%
Graduation
86%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1305/27
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United States Coast Guard Academy’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
56%
Student body
4K
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Eastern Connecticut State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$35K
Acceptance
81%
Graduation
49%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
970/19
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Albertus Magnus College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$42K
Acceptance
78%
Graduation
56%
Student body
2K
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University of Saint Joseph ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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