I'm biased here of course as an Alum of UCONN, but one of the appeals of the school when I was applying was its suburban location. A dental school with set on a hillside with trees and grass and a couple of ponds nearby, it seemed alot more appealing than concrete and traffic and smog. As for FARMington as you put it, well after living in the town for 6 years, hey its in the top 5 in per capita household income in the state with the highest annual household income in the US. Sure there are alot of BMW's and Mercedes driving around Farmington, but there are also alot of great restaurants nearby, and alot of open land/fields(this doesn't even include the park less than 1 mile from the dental school with over 50 miles of hiking/jogging/mountain biking paths. Plus, Hartford has alot of opportunities just 5 minutes down the road, the ocean is 45 minutes away, the mountains of Vermont just under 2 hours, and if thats not enough New York and Boston are both less than 2 hours away. As for the curriculum complaints, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year students in the seminar course that I teach there seem to have the same impression that I did when I was a student, its tough, but fair. Like I said, just a biased opinion of someone who went there, still teaches there, and lived there. 🙂