I don't go there so I can't speak to any NSers being there, but I grew up a town over and Hartford was pretty much within walking distance. You aren't in the greatest area, yeah you have a campus which will be fine but if you ever decide to go out just be cautious, Hartford can get really sketchy at the late hours of the night. As far as skiing you have Mt Southington in Southington which I know there are a good amount of kids on here that go there, or other CT mountains (Powder Ridge, Sundown, etc) and Mt Snow in Vermont is about a 2 hour drive. Hartford definitely has some pretty awesome potential urban spots if you're into that and we get enough snow around here to make it happen, it'll just be a matter of finding other skiers who are down.