New UConn freshman class shows promise with high test scores

HARTFORD, Conn. --Test scores show the new freshman class at the University of Connecticut's Storrs campus is better and brighter.

The average combined SAT test scores are up 82 points and there are more than twice as many valedictorians and salutatorians than a decade ago.

The new class arrived at UConn's main campus on Friday for the new academic year.

But there are mixed opinions among professors as to whether these students are really superior to past classes. Some professors told the Hartford Courant the new wave of students is more engaged and better informed than students from a decade ago. Others said the students are worse because they don't study enough.

"For faculty members, it's a very different atmosphere in the classroom because of the quality of students coming here and the emphasis on academics," said Maureen Croteau, a journalism professor. "We did have good students coming before. Now they're exceptional."

Over the past 10 years, UConn has undergone a massive $2.3 billion campus makeover to raise the school's national stature as a research university. That effort has led to a growth in prospective student applications and more competition to get accepted to the school.

Chelsea Weiss, 20, a senior from Pomfret, said she sees a difference between the new and old freshmen classes. As the university becomes more competitive, academic expectations have risen.

"There's a lot of demand from the university for this excellence and students are responding," she said. "People who didn't realize they had it inside them (are) responding to this."

David B. Miller, a psychology professor, said he hasn't noticed a change despite the school attracting higher quality students.

"We have some excellent students, no doubt about that. But if you look at the student population as a whole, it's just not very good," he said, adding how students are not spending enough time studying or thinking critically.