Appalachian State University

App State is a definitive 5/5 star experience, but the reality of being a 20-year-old student here is that it’s a "great school, but not a perfect one." The greatness is rooted in the atmosphere; there is an undeniable energy in Boone that you won't find at a massive state school in a flat city. It’s the kind of place where your professors actually know your name and your specific career goals, especially within the rigorous tracks of the Walker College of Business. Whether you are deep into economic... Read More supply and demand analysis or balancing complex accounting spreadsheets, the academic support feels personal rather than like a factory. The community is tight-knit, and having the Blue Ridge Parkway as a literal backyard for post-class decompression is a luxury that never gets old.

However, the "not perfect" side comes from the growing pains of a town that’s bursting at the seams. By your junior year, the Boone housing market becomes a source of genuine stress, as finding an affordable spot near campus feels like a competitive sport. There’s also the weather; while the snowy aesthetic looks great on a brochure, walking to a 9:00 AM lecture when it’s 18°F with a mountain wind chill is a brutal reality check. The "Boone Bubble" is real, too—while the isolation creates a strong bond among students, it can occasionally feel limiting if you’re craving a fast-paced, metropolitan lifestyle. It’s a 5/5 school because it forces you to be resilient. You learn to balance high-level academics with the logistical hurdles of mountain living. It’s a place that offers a top-tier education and a rugged, authentic lifestyle, proving that a school doesn't have to be "perfect" to be exactly where you need to be.

Appalachian State was an awesome place to go to college. The environment is fabulous as it is very collaborative and minimally competitive/cut-throat. I loved how individuality is praised. Even though it's a big school, I felt like I was able to connect with faculty and professors in meaningful ways, and my education was very individualized. The academics are not as rigorous as some schools, but you get what you put into it. I am now in medical school, and I feel very prepared, even compared to my... Read More peers, many of whom went to much more prestigious and academically-focused schools.

Graduated with a degree in Recreation Management. I left this program feeling that I’d wasted much of my time and money. I learned very little from my instructors and would’ve been better off just doing self study. It was all extremely basic. I’ve had some successes in jobs since but none of those can be credited to my degree. I have been denied jobs I have applied for that directly correlated to my degree; the reasons being that my education is not enough. It is hard to describe my level of disappointment... Read More with my education at Appalachian. I wish I’d chosen somewhere else or even decided not to attend college at all. Either would have served me better

I would not recommend Appalachian State University to anybody based on numerous reasons. To start there is a crisis for housing and parking here. I overpay for my one-bedroom apartment that is in worse condition than one I could pay half for at my previous school. This is because App State chooses to accept more students than necessary so that housing can charge close to 1,000 in rent everywhere and so that App State can make more money. Also, you have to sign your lease in September-November to... Read More ensure you have a place to live the following year. Parking is ridiculous. Everywhere you have an 80% chance of being towed or booted. The parking passes are outrageously expensive for school and there is not enough. Even if you work at the school as a GA or for a student job they will not give you a priority pass making the trek to class 15+ minutes from the parking lot. For football games, students are no longer allowed to get tailgate spots because they're giving them to people who do not go here or slum because they'll pay more for them. They clearly only care about money. The program: The experimental psychology program is a joke of a master's program and requires Ph.D. level work without equipping you with the knowledge you need to complete tasks. The mentors give their mentees little to no attention as they require students to complete a thesis that is not feasible to complete in a two-year program. I ensured that I did everything needed to do to graduate on time, see my mentor and thesis committee's lack of help it has now been postponed to the summer. IF YOU GO HERE IT WILL TAKE YOU TWO YEARS AND A SUMMER SESSION TO COMPLETE YOUR DEGREE. This is falsely advertised on the app state website they say it'll take you two years then act like it's your fault you're graduating late, although they make no effort to ensure you graduate on time. Also, none of their students graduate on time so you would think they would make adjustments to ensure their students can graduate on time. But, they won't and I don't see them changing it anytime soon. Anything for more money is all this university cares about. I would not recommend this program at all. Go somewhere else that gives an accomplishable goal rather than expecting Ph.D. level work from master students with no guidance. The course material is fine and I enjoyed most of my professors when they weren't indoctrinating students.

I am so fed up with how this campus nickels and dimes you for existing. I am in a financially rough position, as most college-age personnel are, and what drew me particularly to App State was how cheap its instate tuition was for a master's level program. What no mentor of mine or anyone else told me before applying is how much they charge you for housing or parking spaces. They make you pay for not-ideal parking spaces at least a half hour to an hour bus ride away from your campus buildings, yet... Read More when there are vacant parking lots filled up by their brand new TESLAs and you try to park there and PAY EXTRA, their park mobile app goes belly up and you still get ticketed. The nonsense is outrageous, so just be prepared to spend an extra 1000-2000 a semester on car maintenance, tickets, and parking spots($800-1200). Faculty just accept this stuff, too, and don't even try to help but shrug their shoulders and say, "That's just how it always has been".

I graduated with my Master's in Experimental Psychology back in Fall 2020. I took an extra semester since my Master's thesis required in person data collection and I had to rewrite it so I defended a pilot study from my first year before COVID. It is difficult for me to recommend this program to any prospective student for a variety of reasons. The first is that the graduate assistantships do not waive tuition. Even though such assistantships that do so at the MA level are rare, this can create strain... Read More for some students. Appalachian State is affordable regardless. So, if anyone considering the program did their undergrad there as well (about half of those admitted did it), that would be an option. The second is that many faculty treat students poorly or will outright retaliate in a passive aggressive manner. For my graduating class, many of us would often share notes or study guides with each other. Faculty knew this and said amongst each other that this was a concern. However, none of that information ever made its way to us until it was too late. On the first exam for graduate social psychology, one quarter of the exam was on content not on the study guide. When our grades were finally released, they noted that this design was intentional since we shared mock study guide answers amongst each other. I failed the first exam but got what was needed on the other exams to pass the class. There were also many other questionable statements or behaviors from faculty as well. For example, during a graduation speech for one student, a faculty member said their advisee was "the first one they were proud of." The implications of a statement like that, coupled with how faculty treated students, makes me question the support faculty and staff are willing to offer students. Third, not many students who are admitted make it through the program. Out of 11 in my class, only 8 graduated and many had to take an extra Fall semester (including me). One who did not make it was a valedictorian in her undergrad who worked part time during the program to pay off her tuition accrued during the program. Despite all As, one B, positive teaching reviews, and making progress on her Master's thesis, she did not make it because many faculty did not like that she worked during the program (one faculty even filed a false complaint against her she had to fight). No faculty outside of the director were called by their first names either. I could only call my advisor by their first name after I graduated from the program. I personally think if someone did their undergraduate at Appalachian State and had a good working relationship with their would be advisor, go for it. Just be mindful of the toxic environment.

I absolutely loved being a student at Appalachian State University. I came in as a transfer student planning to major in Secondary Social Studies Education. With App State being founded as a teacher's college well back in the day, education is most definitely one of their top majors and they certainly produce some phenomenal teachers. However, being a History, Social Studies Education major (which is the official degree title, or at least was in 2017) really just made me feel like I was a History... Read More major that took a few occasional education classes. It somewhat didn't make me feel like I was that prepared to take on the world of teaching high school immediately following graduation, and to be honest I didn't. I will say that I can't and won't blame my experience on App State. I came in as a transfer student that during my first two years of general education courses really had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, so I only spent 2 years at App State. To speak on the transfer-friendliness, I can say that App State is one of the most transfer-friendly schools in North Carolina, with a surprising number of their total enrollment being made up of transfer students. They did accept all of my general education credits upon entering which was a relief however I always felt rather disconnected from the school and campus activities seeing that I never lived on campus during my time as a student there. I would have really liked maybe to have a little more outreach from the Transfer Services office to come onto campus and get involved, which might have helped me as well with my performance in the classroom. My advice to transfer students would be to get out and get active on campus, and make sure that you make the connections with both your peers and your professors, as those are going to be important moving forward in both the professional or post graduate educational world. Despite these things, I still had an amazing experience at App State and would recommend this school to everyone! It is one of the most affordable state schools in NC, and I think that truly some of the most friendly people and professors grace this campus. It also doesn't hurt that the backdrop for the school is the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are absolutely beautiful.

Appalachian State University is a great university that I would recommend to anyone. The quality of instruction in my Elementary Education program was incredible. Faculty and staff truly cared for me as a student, were well prepared for class, helped us find internships and student teaching placements, and set the example by creating engaging lesson plans. The student to faculty ratio is low, and I met so many great people. The cost to attend was well priced compared to other schools I considered... Read More which decreased my stress level when attending.

Appalachian State University is a great university that I would recommend to anyone. The quality of instruction in my Elementary Education program was incredible. Faculty and staff truly cared for me as a student, were well prepared for class, helped us find internships and student teaching placements, and set the example by creating engaging lesson plans. The student to faculty ratio is low, and I met so many great people. The cost to attend was well priced compared to other schools I considered... Read More which decreased my stress level when attending.

My undergraduate university Appalachian State introduce me to the new world. In college, I had a chance to talk to students around the world including countries like Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, Nepal, India, and many more. I was always eager to learn about their countries and cultures. These students were thousands of miles away from home. Their stories incredibly inspired me. Learning from them excited me and made me realize that our world was so diverse and yet very much connected. There was... Read More so much to see, learn, and teach. They put a curiosity in my mind to go out and see the world. Coming from a low-income family I had never gotten a chance to travel anywhere outside of North Carolina, but with the help of many scholarships I studied abroad in Thailand where I discovered and learned about Thai culture and made many long-lasting friends. For that I am so grateful to Appalachian State University. They did a great job to help me with my scholarship applications and made sure I had everything that I needed to study abroad. Their writing center is amazing and always want to help their students to become better writers.
Appalachian State University have great faculties, and they are always willing to meet students that need extra help outside of class hours.

Everyone's situation is different, and I blame myself for attending this school (and not transferring). I'm perfectly fine with where I am in life, so no sour grapes. But I owe absolutely nothing I've done post-collegiately to this place, and I wish I had gone somewhere with more emphasis on academics and career-building. If you consider your absolute ceiling 2.5 children, a golden retriever, and a stable sales job in Raleigh or Charlotte, then App may be the school for you. That's what the two or... Read More three most successful people I know from App are up to a decade later. If you have any interest in leaving North Carolina and/or pursuing bigger goals, then a degree from here will not do you any favors. I don't know what it's like now. But when I graduated, I planned to move to a major city. A week after I graduated, I popped into the alumni center to ask about any alumni network there. I was looked at like a crazy person. On the few occasions I met with someone in career services as a student, I was made to feel like I was wasting their time for bothering. Nothing was provided for me that I couldn't have just Googled. This is stuff that is supposed to be "normal" at large universities. There's just really not much learning done outside of the classroom, and I feel that this is reflected in both career services and the reach of any alumni network (or lack thereof). As for the classes themselves... I was challenged so much more in high school AP and IB classes. I really enjoyed the content of most classes in my major, and I had a few top notch professors. But everything was still very easy. I had extremely "country" classmates (especially freshman and sophomore years) who couldn't even speak or write proper English. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but those people were not helpful at all to have as peers. Pretty much all group work I did throughout college was absolute hell. Most people were not motivated at all. I knew maybe 4-5 people in my entire four years who did summer internships. Almost every single person I knew graduated and either moved back in with their parents to job hunt, or stayed in Boone working hourly restaurant/retail jobs. Again, not that there's anything wrong with that. But based on my friends' experiences at other schools, that is not normal. Some positive things I can say... The people were friendly, and it was a nice collegiate atmosphere. The campus is also very pretty. The surrounding outdoors opportunities are really good by East Coast standards. And if small-time D1 football is your thing, then you're in luck. Because that's what the entire county revolves around during the fall. With the right amount of effort and independent legwork, you can do well here. As I wrote earlier, I'm perfectly pleased with where I am in life. If you're motivated though, I just don't see the point in putting yourself in a position where you don't have the real-world resources a university is supposed to have. If anything in my review speaks to you, then I'd seriously recommend going to a school where the long-term expectation is better than making $50k/yr in NC for your entire life.If you're like I was (enticed by scholarship money), think long and hard about whether you want to be a big fish in a small pond here. If I had to do it all over again, I would have gone somewhere better.

Appalachian State is a truly beautiful school. The surroundings are picturesque. The community around the school is small. It's a small, rather rural area. The sense of community is strong and powerful. You get the feeling that the entire town is in it with you. They are all there with you pushing you to succeed. There is definitely something in the air, especially on a game day. There is so much to do off-campus. There is hiking, swimming, backpacking, camping, skiing, and so much more. The Child... Read More Development program was wonderful. The teachers are so passionate and they know what they are talking about. There is a child development lab program right on campus that is priceless as a student. I loved all of my field placements. It was amazing to take what I was learning in class and apply it in the real world. What I learned about typical and atypical development has been so valuable. I would recommend this program to anyone looking a future working with children.

Attending Appalachian State was the worst experience of my life. I was part of the Recreation Management program. The program was a joke. There is no way to learn how to be an outdoor leader from a classroom. The time spent outdoors was minimal and seriously lacks behind any real institution for outdoor education. I left the school feeling as if I had been cheated and robbed of an amount of money I will never be able to fully pay back. In trying to find employment, I am told my education experience... Read More is not enough and overall irrelevant. Please don't make the same mistake as I did; if you're thinking of majoring in Recreation Management at Appalachian State, consider other options such as the AMGA, NOLS or any reputable outdoor education program. Overall, my time spent at ASU was a massive waste of my time and money.