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Appalachian State puts too much effort into trying to market the campus. The school tries to market a "one love" diversity type feel to the campus, its very transparent. I transferred in '08. back when they really started to pour money into the campus via football. which what from I understand really changed the whole school.It bought a different type of people to the school than I imagained.The school milks the victory over michigan pretty hard, even though it was 5 years ago. Frats and Soroties got much bigger just within the three years I was there.Before I got there I think there were more "hippies" and other laid back liberal arts types.Appstate seemed like it was turned more into a business school than a liberal arts school when i was there. The student body is pretty cliquey (full of bro'd out stoners,finance majors,fundamentalist christians,frat boys, soroity girls,hispter types,atheletes,occasional hippies, somewhat outdoorsy types,and people who are really stoked about campus life.) Alot of the students can be self absorbed, including myself at one point. It can create a really superficial, unfreindly, and uptight enviroment.there are some good genuine people though you just got to dig. I attribute this to the town of Boone. It really can be a dull place to be with not much to do. Although it has quaint downtown. It has really pretty summers and great hiking and swimming spots. Watch out for floridians though they are the seasonal summer plague of western NC. There are some nice bars and beerstores surrounding. The bartenders at boone saloon can be really unfriendly(due to an undeserved beer snobbery)they are nice to girls though.The real estate is terrible.Most of the rental agencies rent cheap, crampt apartments. Some are owned by people in Florida others by people in town. They make a quick buck by exploiting the students into coughing up like 500-600 bucks a month on average for a small shitty apartment, I had a freind with black mold and his landlord refused to do anything about it. Not all are bad i would say 80% are pretty awful to rent from and a minority are sub-par to fine, just be careful when you live off campus, and you will the school is too small for the amount of students the school wants to bring in. Which means dorms are hard to get. the student advising is pretty poor, when I transferred I was assigned to this women who was a real dummy, i dont remember the specifics, but alot of people complained about her. Im not sure how she got her job. Finding summer jobs are tough here.

Its not all bad though…there is a great local music scene growing with some coffee shops and houses, they bring alot of musicians regionally and nationally in which is really pretty cool. The art department changed alot when I was there, it got much better. One of the few saving graces of appstate are the devotion that the art faculty and other facutly have to their work. I was actually going to transfer a second time but through developing relationships with them convinced me to stay.I learned alot about art, probably more than I would have at the other school i previously attended. Appstate in that regard was not bad. The library has some sweet art books you can check out.The writing center helped me alot. The art department is okay as far as art schools go, you get out of it what you put in. I was never a fan of art expo though. I felt it bought an unhealthy rivalry with students. And fed egos. My art got way better out of school, which is the goal of art school. There are some galleries in town which are supportive of students and let them hang work and have shows. In retrospect i think I needed a school that was less football and less business focus.

If your looking for public schools that have more of an "artsy" focus in NC try UNCG or UNCA. The students i met from there were alot nicer and much more freindly and open. I think there are defiantly better places to go to school and better places to live if youre a student in north carolina or Western nc like the Asheville area or even the chapel hill area. All in all i dont like Appalachian state or boone that much, but I made alot of cool freinds , and had some great experiences.