Appalachian State University

Date: Oct 04 2009
Major: Computer Science (This Major's Salary over time)
I got in to Appalachian before Moore and company started winning national titles, and back then it was considered something of an underrated, blue collar school where folks who couldn't get into the UNCs and Wake Forests of the world went to receive a nonetheless high-quality education. Thanks to a series of aggressive revamping and renovation projects around campus and yes, the success of the football program, a lot of that has changed. App has increased in prestige and has joined the ranks of first choice schools; it is no longer a second-tier "safety school" for aspiring Tar Heels or Deacons. The academics get mixed reviews-it really depends on your major, and you should thoroughly research your classes and professors before you make a decision. Like every university, there are some professors that you should absolutely avoid.

Appalachian's expansion, of course, has come at a price. The school is becoming somewhat overcrowded and the infrastructure of Boone is massively overburdened. The traffic and parking situation is just awful. Football is life here, and campus is virtually unnavigable by car on Saturdays due to an ocean of fans and tailgaters. The type of person that is attracted to App has changed quite a bit as well. Other reviews are correct in that there has been an influx of pretentious, arrogant students alongside wealthier individuals who come to Boone to complain about the lack of night life and limited social scene as if they expected a tiny mountain town to be a Durham or Chapel Hill. Outside of the university, Boone is purely small-town USA, and if that sounds like hell to you, then you should apply somewhere else. The natural beauty is inspiring, it is a quiet, relatively safe place to live, off-campus housing is reasonably priced and fairly abundant, and the Blue Ridge Parkway is five minutes out of town. I'm going to hate leaving this place.