Appalachian State University celebrates 125 years of education leadership in 2024. A thriving institution, App State honors its founding commitment to educational access and excellence and its rural mountain heritage through teaching, research and service. As a premier public institution, the university shapes students into globally minded, responsible members of society who engage with and actively contribute to their communities. The App State Experience brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically and to act with passion and determination. With campuses located in the Blue Ridge Mountains and Catawba Valley, App State enrolls more than 21,000 students at its Boone and Hickory campuses and online, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.

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21K+

students enrolled

85%

overall first-year to sophomore retention rate

91.5%

of undergraduates are employed and/or enrolled in postsecondary institution within 1 year of graduation

App State’s Boone and Hickory Campuses

Watch this video for a glimpse of Mountaineer life at App State’s campuses in Boone, NC, at an elevation of 3,333 feet in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and in Hickory, NC, nestled in the Catawba Valley at the mountains’ foothills. From campus life, to classes and athletics — see why it’s great to be a Mountaineer!

Highlights

Academics

Widely recognized for implementing an innovative, interdisciplinary and integrative curriculum, App State faculty are dedicated to research and student mentorship and invested in new teaching strategies, modalities and technologies that help students succeed. With high job placement rates, the university’s more than 150 academic degree programs are aligned with the workforce development needs of the state’s industries and prepare students to excel in their future careers, as well as in graduate studies. Nearly every App State degree program has a positive return on investment for North Carolina students, according to a 2023 UNC System study, and recent reports indicate that App State students hold some of the lowest debt in the nation. App State’s status as both a leader and an innovator in higher education — for its academics, innovation and value — is consistently recognized by national publications such as U.S. News & World Report, The Princeton Review, Forbes magazine and others. App State has been named the South’s No. 1 Most Innovative School by U.S. News for four consecutive years, with the publication ranking the university No. 2 in Top Public Schools, No. 2 in Best Undergraduate Teaching and No. 2 in Best Colleges for Veterans in the South for 2024. App State’s more than 80 graduate degree programs and certificates help students deepen their knowledge and advance in their careers, with programs that are ranked among the best in the nation.
Academics

Athletics

App State student-athletes are students first. They are celebrated for their dedication and work ethic, which result in excellence in their sport and exemplary performance in the classroom. App State has earned the Sun Belt Conference’s Institutional Graduation Rate Award three times since 2015, and the spring 2024 semester marked the 12th consecutive year that Mountaineer student-athletes have earned a cumulative GPA of above 3.0. The university’s nationally ranked football team has enjoyed unprecedented success at the highest level of Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision), with six bowl wins in its first six years at the FBS level and four Sun Belt Conference championships. At App State, 15 of the university’s 17 varsity sports teams compete in the NCAA Division I Sun Belt Conference.
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The App State Experience encompasses everything that makes App State extraordinary: the engaging academic environment, the dynamic and integrated arts programs, championship-winning Mountaineers athletics and the two best natural resources — the people and the university’s settings in the Blue Ridge Mountains and Catawba Valley. Students are provided countless life-changing opportunities that help them develop as unique individuals within the supportive App State Community.
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