Is it true that it would be a culture shock for me to move to Connecticut when I have lived in NC all my life?

Question

I go to a small university in N.C. and was raised in N.C.
I want to go to UConn for grad school....would this be a culture shock? Are people that much different in different places?

Answer 1

Maybe the people would be somewhat different but when you are at a large school like that, it's not like the only students there will be from CT. I've heard the stereotypes about people from CT, that they are all rich, snobby, not friendly, etc.. It's just not true. If anything, the people there may be a little more reserved than other parts of the country but that's a New England thing, not just a CT thing.

I grew up and spent the first 19 years of my life in the area around UCONN (the Storrs, CT area) and it's not exactly the 'big city' or anything. People would refer to my town as being in the middle of nowhere or in the 'country' compared to other areas of CT. Northeastern CT is still very quiet and a lot of areas are semi-rural. There are miles of woods with deer and other 'wildlife'. There's even coyotes that run around sometimes and eat peoples cats. UCONN is not in a suburban area, it's all very 'small town' around there. There are still farms, cornfields, cows, etc. but it's changing, especially in the last 5-10 years. I moved to NYC 10 years ago because I wanted nothing more than to get out of that part of CT because it was too boring and I couldn't take small town life anymore.

You really need to have a car if you want to have any kind of life off campus. You can easily rent a small house but you'd probably have to walk for miles before you got to a store or anything. Willimantic, CT (nearby) is somewhat of a small city but it's kind of crappy and has had a lot of problems with drugs and crime in the past. It's basically a lower income city. They've got cheap apartments and multi-family houses there that you could rent. They have public transportation but that's the only town in that area that does. That's the city that has the bus station (Greyhound, etc.) if you want to travel far without a car. A bus from there can get you to major cities or to a place in CT, like Hartford or New Haven, where you can get Amtrak or other trains. UCONN may have it's own sort of shuttle bus service in the area but I'm not sure.

I've only driven through NC so I can't really compare the two but I really don't think you'd go through that much of a culture shock. As for the people, that part of CT is mostly white, not a lot of black or Asian people for whatever reason. Willimantic has a huge Puerto Rican population though. Obviously, UCONN would be somewhat racially mixed, like any other college, but it's a predominantly white area. I'm only adding this because the town I grew up in (about 10 minutes away from UCONN) was about 98% white and a lot of people I knew were a little bit racist. Everyone was pretty quiet about it though until you were in their home and you heard the crap their parents were saying about how they didn't want "the blacks and Puerto Ricans" moving into the town. BUT, I know things have changed a bit in the past few years.

Answer 2

It could be a culture shock especially if you've always had trouble adapting to new surroundings.

Answer 3

it will be alot colder....why do you want the north....ive spent 27 years of my life in northern states and southeast is better!