In 1938, Mount Holyoke – which, at that point, had begun to experience a rise in its enrollment – withdrew its affiliation, leaving Hartford Junior College as its own independent institution.

Under the 30-year tenure of president Laura A. Johnson, the college expanded its programs to offer 2-year [Associate of Arts] degrees and became a national leader in women's education.

She believed in operating HCW as a place for "women who [wanted] to learn and teachers who [loved] to teach," and continued that promote the college that way during the coeducation movement of the 1960s.

In the early 1960s, HCW began admitting Laura Johnson Scholars, or women who were returning to (or entering) college beyond the traditional age.

Although it merged into a coeducational university, giving students access to all of the programs and services offered by UHart, HCW maintained its single-sex status and separate campus.

HCW classes were originally held at the Hartford branch of the YWCA, located on the current site of the XL Center.

After its stint on Highland Street, the college moved to Hartford's more affluent and wooded West End in 1958, where it settled on a 13-acre (53,000 m2) campus near the site of the University of Connecticut School of Law.

In 2006, The University of Hartford founded the Women's Advancement Initiative which serves female students by helping them develop academic and leadership skills, in memory of the college.

The University in addition continues to operate the HCW Career Counseling and Entrepreneurial studies center on the Albany Avenue campus.

The college's seal featured a temple of learning and the Latin motto Sibi constantem esse, which loosely translates into English as "To make them steady," or more accurately, "To be true to oneself."

The most recognizable symbol of HCW today is Butterworth Hall, the main building of the college visible from Asylum Avenue.