Appalachian State University (ASU) is built up of six undergraduate colleges, one music school, and one postgraduate school, and has over 150 undergraduate and postgraduate majors. ASU ranked #6 in Best Colleges in Regional Universities South (2022) and it’s 16:1 student-to-faculty ratio allows for class sizes to remain relatively small. This means that students at ASU receive a closer learning relationship with professors and faculty, 98% of whom having achieved the highest degrees in their field. 

The university’s most popular majors are:

• Psychology
• Health & Physical Education
• Business Administration & Management
• Teacher Education
• Biology
• Nursing

ASU’s campus is an enormous 500 acres of green tree life and scenic vistas at an elevation of 3,333 feet above sea level, the highest campus east of the Mississippi River. 

Peacock Hall is the home of the College of Business where students can learn at an institution that is routinely featured in the Princeton Review of Best Business Schools. The Student Leadership Centre and Centre for Entrepreneurship are also included as part of Peacock Hall, in addition to lectures as part of the Boyles Distinguished CEO Lecture series where high-level executives come to ASU to deliver talks.

The Belk Library and Information Commons is a hub of student research and knowledge with more than just books inside; laptops and multimedia devices can be loaned out to students for free, as well as access to Digital Media Studio. 

The Transportation Insight Centre for Entrepreneurship (CFE) is the perfect way for a student at any phase of entrepreneurship; whether you’re a complete beginner to the concept or are searching for funding to realise those dreams, you are in safe hands here. There are a variety of programmes here, such as alumni startups, the build-a-business workshop series, entrepreneurship roundtable, and more. 

The Startup Factory is another programme run by CFE which is a series of one-hour workshops over the course of ten weeks where students can show that they can stand out from the crowd of other hard-working students by showing application of their studies in entrepreneurship.

The location of ASU in the Blue Ridge Mountains offers certain research opportunities that few other universities can offer; habitats, landscapes, flora and fauna can be observed closely by the talented researchers of ASU. 

Over $136 million of funded research annually goes through ASU and it is used effectively, with solar vehicle development, brain research, internet data centre efficiency, and even a recent trip to Mount Everest to set up the world’s highest operating automated weather station. 

The Office of Student Research can answer any queries for students either wanting to engage in primary research as part of their studies, seek out funding or help with grant proposals. 

One aspect that ASU really encourages their students to participate in is volunteering schemes in the local communities of Boone, NC. Appalachian and the Community Together (ACT) and Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) have teamed up to give the students of ASU unrivalled opportunities to increase their employability by serving the communities in specialised volunteering roles that will be most relevant to a student’s priorities. 

In ASU’s Career Development Centre Strategic Plan 2020-2025, ASU claims 8,462 students have participated in career coaching, exploration or other activities and 90% of them reported it as helpful to their specific needs, as 97.6% of these people are employed or enrolled in education again now. ASU’s industry links are strong too, with 550 employers visiting the campus between 2018-19.

ASU’s campus is in Boone, North Carolina, and this town has so much to offer students who fully immerse themselves into life here. It’s a town of four seasons, where there is up to 86cm of snowfall each winter, making skiing a great pastime for students. In the warmer months, the 405km of Blue Ridge Parkway provides excellent hikes for students to blow off steam and truly connect with nature. 

More than 400 clubs and societies call ASU home, with 20 NCAA Division I varsity sports and 101 intramural and club sports, the student life is very close knit and lively, with students from more than 49 countries making it a multicultural student population.

It is not the strongest university academically and perhaps doesn’t have the most incredible career prospects that you can find at other universities around the country, but this is reflected in the price of the tuition here which is very cheap, relatively speaking. 

There are few better settings for the duration of one’s studies than the Blue Ridge Mountains at a university where nature is at its crux and research opportunities here are unique and will suit any prospective student who has those opportunities at the front of their mind.