Coordinates: 41°22′42.36″N 72°06′16.81″W / 41.3784333°N 72.1046694°W / 41.3784333; -72.1046694
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Private liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut
Thames College (1911)
Connecticut College for Women (1911–1969)
Tanquam lignum quod plantatum est secus decursus aquarum
\"Like a tree planted by rivers of water that bringeth forth its fruit in its season.\"
Private liberal arts college
April 1911; 112 years ago (1911-04)
Oberlin GroupAnnapolis GroupCLAC
$435 million (2022)
Leslie Wong (interim)
246
1,737
New London, Connecticut, United States
41°22′42.36″N 72°06′16.81″W / 41.3784333°N 72.1046694°W / 41.3784333; -72.1046694
Suburban, 750 acres
(303 ha)
Connecticut College blue and white
NCAA Division III – NESCACNEISACWPA
Camel - Humphrey the Camel
www.conncoll.edu
This article is about the liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. For the public university in Storrs, Connecticut, see University of Connecticut.
Connecticut College (Conn) is a private liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. Originally chartered as Thames College, it was founded in 1911 as the state\'s only women\'s college, a response to Wesleyan University having closed its doors to female students in 1909. The college became coeducational in 1969, adopting its current name.
Conn is a four-year residential undergraduate institution with approximately 1,700 students. Students choose courses from 41 programs, including interdisciplinary pathways and centers, with a majority choosing to study abroad. The college is situated on a hill located adjacent to the Thames River. In 1982, Conn was inducted as a member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), where its athletes compete as part of NCAA Division III.
The Charles E. Shain Library was originally dedicated in 1976 and is named after former College President Charles Shain. It was renovated, expanded, and re-dedicated in 2015. The renovation was honored by the American Institute of Architects with a 2015 New England Honor Award in the category of Preservation. In 2016, LibraryJournal named the library a New Landmark Libraries Winner.
Performance spaces on campus include: Palmer Auditorium, Tansill Theater, housed in Hillyer Hall; Myers Dance Studio, housed in Crozier-Williams College Center; Harkness Chapel, Evans Music Hall, Fortune Recital Hall; Oliva Hall, housed in Cummings Art Center.
Palmer Auditorium was home to the American Dance Festival from 1947 to 1977, featuring choreographers such as Martha Graham, José Limón, and Merce Cunningham in what was called \"the most important summertime event in modern dance.\"
The Connecticut College Arboretum is an arboretum and botanical garden. The arboretum is also open to the public.
Harkness Chapel was designed by architect James Gamble Rogers, exhibiting his colonial Georgian style, with twelve stained glass windows by G. Owen Bonawit. The building is used for denominational religious services, as well as for ceremonies, concerts and recitals, weddings, and other public functions.
The Lyman Allyn Art Museum is located on campus, although it is not connected to the campus proper. The museum\'s website states that \"the permanent collection includes over 10,000 paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, furniture, and decorative arts, with an emphasis on American art from the 18th through 20th centuries.\" The collection is housed in a neo-classical building designed by Charles A. Platt.
Academics
Connecticut College is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education; it has been so continuously by NECHE or its predecessor since December 1932. The college\'s academics are organized into thirty-one academic departments and seven interdisciplinary programs with forty-one traditional majors plus opportunities for self-designed courses of study. Starting with the class of 2020, students at Connecticut Collegeparticipate in a new interdisciplinary general education curriculum called Connections.
Its most popular majors, by 2021 graduates, were: Psychology (44), Economics (36), Political Science & Government (34), Biology/Biological Sciences (27), and Neuroscience (22).
Connecticut College has a history of undergraduate research work and students are encouraged to make conference presentations and publish their work under the guidance of a professor. The college had 182 full-time professors in 2017–18; 93% held a doctorate or equivalent. The student-faculty ratio is about 9 to 1.
Admissions
Admission to the college is considered \"more selective\" by U.S. News & World Report. The college received 6,784 applications for the Class of 2023 (entering fall 2019) of which 2,538 (37.4%) were accepted. Of the 68% of the entering class who submitted SAT scores, the middle 50% range was 650–710 for evidence-based reading, and 660–740 for Math.
Rankings
46
25
128
103
In the 2022 college rankings of U.S. News & World Report, Connecticut College ranked 55th (tie) among liberal arts colleges, 63rd (tie) for \"Best Undergraduate Teaching\", 40th (tie) for \"Most Innovative\", 69th for \"Best Value\", and 144th for \"Top Performers in Social Mobility\".
Washington Monthly ranked Connecticut College 25th in 2021 among 218 liberal arts colleges in the US based on its contribution to the public good, as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service. Forbes ranked Connecticut College 128th overall in its 2019 list of 650 liberal arts colleges, universities and service academies; 55th among liberal arts schools, 62nd in the Northeast, and 96th among private colleges. Connecticut College is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.
Student life
Honor code
Students live under the college\'s 85-year-old student-adjudicated honor code. The honor code underpins all academic and social interactions at the college and creates a palpable spirit of trust and cooperation between students and faculty. Other manifestations of the code include self-scheduled, non-proctored final exams.
Demographics
In a typical year, the college enrolls about 1,850 men and women from 40 to 45 states, Washington, D.C., and 70 countries. Approximately forty percent of students are men. The fall 2019 student body was 67.5% White, 9.9% Hispanic, 4.1% Asian American, 3.8% African American, and 3.7% multiracial, with an additional 9% international students. The college is now particularly known for interdisciplinary studies, international programs and study abroad, funded internships, student-faculty research, service learning, and shared governance. Under the college\'s system of shared governance, faculty, staff, students, and administrators are represented on the major committees that make policy regarding the curriculum, the budget, and the campus and facilities.
Memberships
Connecticut College is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the Annapolis Group, and the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC).
Clubs and organizations
Connecticut College does not offer a Greek system of fraternities or sororities. The college has seven a cappella groups. Women\'s groups are The ConnChords, The Shwiffs, and Miss Connduct. The Co Co Beaux is the male group. The coeducational groups include the ConnArtists, Vox Cameli, and the Williams Street Mix.
Composer and violinist Margaret Jones Wiles founded and conducted the Connecticut College Orchestra when she taught at the college during the 1950s.
The college radio station (WCNI 90.9 FM) broadcasts a variety of music, including polka, blues, and Celtic music shows. A 2,000 watt transmitter installed in 2003 reaches much of the lower New England region. Connecticut College has two student newspapers in which students handle all aspects of production: reporting, editing, ad sales, management, photography, layout, multimedia, and design. The College Voice is an editorially independent print and online bi-weekly publication, and The Conntrarian is an online opinion publication and a member of the Collegiate Network.
The Student Activities Council (SAC) runs events including club fairs, school dances, concerts, and off-campus excursions. SAC is also responsible for Floralia, the annual spring concert. Recent Floralia artists have included Misterwives, Cash Cash, RAC, and St. Lucia.
Unity House is the college\'s multicultural center which promotes, supports, educates, and implements multicultural awareness programs on campus. It supports various affinity, activist, and performance student groups. The Women\'s Center provides a space for programming and events concerning gender issues. The LGBTQIA Resource Center serves queer students and their allies by providing a supportive space, resource library, social events, and educational programming. It also hosts several student organizations. In August 2013, Campus Pride named Connecticut College one of the top 25 LGBT-friendly colleges and universities.
Athletics
The College\'s teams participate as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association\'s Division III in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). There are a total of 28 varsity athletics teams at Conn. The twelve men\'s sports include basketball, cross country, ice hockey, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, squash, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, and water polo. The fifteen women\'s sports consist of basketball, cross country, field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, rowing, sailing, soccer, squash, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and water polo.
In 2014, the women\'s soccer team won the College\'s first and only NESCAC Championship to date, defeating Williams College in penalty kicks.
On December 4, 2021, the men\'s soccer team won the College\'s first-ever NCAA Division III National Championship by defeating Amherst College in penalty kicks. Earlier in the season, the team won its first NESCAC regular season title.
On January 21, 2021, Connecticut College goalkeeper AJ Marcucci was selected 67th overall in the 2021 MLS SuperDraft by New York Red Bulls. He became the first-ever draft pick from Connecticut College and was the first Division III pick since 2016.
The Connecticut College Women’s Water Polo Team has won four Collegiate Water Polo Association Division III championships.
Connecticut College has produced 427 collegiate All-Americans, sixty Academic All-Americans and twelve Olympic qualifiers.
The Connecticut College Athletics Hall of Fame was established in 1989 and currently has over 100 inductees.
Notable alumni
Main article: List of Connecticut College alumni
Connecticut College graduates of note include Bloomberg Businessweek senior national correspondent Joshua Green, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, New York Times best-selling authors Sloane Crosley, Hannah Tinti and David Grann, Academy Award-winning actress Estelle Parsons, fashion designer Peter Som, National Baseball Hall of Fame director Jeff Idelson, philanthropist Nan Kempner, Beyond Meat founder Ethan Brown, Senior Federal District Judge Kimba Wood and American Olympic rower Anita DeFrantz.
Patricia Wald,
Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
Sean Spicer,
30th White House Press Secretary
Cynthia Enloe,
Political theorist and feminist writer
Estelle Parsons,
Starring actress of Bonnie and Clyde and Rachel, Rachel
Susan Saint James,
Actress, activist, and star of Kate & Allie
Dorcas Hardy,
10th Commissioner of the Social Security Administration
Sam Seder,
Political commentator and host of The Majority Report