Appalachian State University Overview

Appalachian State University is a public institution situated in Boone, North Carolina. The surrounding location of Boone is ideal for students who enjoy the charms of a college town.

What Is Appalachian State University Known For?

• The 4% student loan default rate at Appalachian State is better than the national rate of 10.1%. That's a good sign that you may be able to pay off student loans easier than your peers at other schools can.
• The doctor's degree is the highest award offered at Appalachian State.
• In 2019-2020, 78% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, Appalachian State bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $45,602 a year. That's about 12% more than their peers at other schools.

Appalachian State University Rankings

Appalachian State is ranked #9 out of 85 schools in North Carolina.

Our rankings are based on an outcomes-based approach rather than subjective ones used by other media outlets. As such, we utilize data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard, among other sources. Visit our rankings and methodology section to learn more.

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Appalachian State.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#2	Best Value Sociology Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Sociology Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#9	Best Special Education Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#40	Best Teacher Education Grade Specific Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#45	Best Educational Administration Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#54	Best Value Communication & Media Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#63	Best Communication & Media Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#84	Best Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#112	Best Value Teacher Education Grade Specific Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#165	Best Business Administration & Management Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Appalachian State has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#2	Best Commercial Photography Schools	College Factual
#5	Best Teacher Development & Methodology Schools	College Factual
#10	Best Junior High/Intermediate/Middle School Education & Teaching Schools	College Factual
#40	Best Teacher Education Grade Specific Schools	College Factual
#83	Best Teaching Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Teaching Degree Search
#117	Best Education Schools	College Factual

Where Is Appalachian State University?

Contact details for Appalachian State are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	287 Rivers St, Boone, NC 28608
Phone:	828-262-2000
Website:	www.appstate.edu/
Facebook:	http://facebook.com/appalachianstateuniversity
Twitter:	http://www.twitter.com/appstate

How Do I Get Into Appalachian State?

You can apply to Appalachian State online at: https://apply.commonapp.org/login?ma=854

Admission Requirements for Appalachian State

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	neither required nor recommended
SAT or ACT Scores	required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into Appalachian State?

The acceptance rate at Appalachian State University is 80%. This means that is not quite as selective as some schools, but you'll still need to submit a good application if you want to be considered by the admissions department.

Approximately 38% of accepted students are men and 62% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 74%, and the acceptance rate for women is 84%.

Average Test Scores

About 39% of students accepted to Appalachian State submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 540 and 630. Math scores were between 530 and 610.

Appalachian State received ACT scores from 43% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 20 and 27. Math scores were between 20 and 26. Composite scores were between 22 and 27.

Can I Afford Appalachian State University?

The overall average net price of Appalachian State is $26,595. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At Appalachian State, approximately 47% of students took out student loans averaging $6,820 a year. That adds up to $27,280 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Appalachian State is 3.6%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Appalachian State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 18,061 undergraduate students at Appalachian State, with 16,905 being full-time and 1,156 being part-time.

There are also 1,962 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 16,905 full-time undergraduates at Appalachian State, 43% are male and 57% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Appalachian State University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	273
Black or African American	590
Hispanic or Latino	1,356
White	13,728
International Students	68
Other Races/Ethnicities	890

Geographic Diversity

North Carolina students aren't the only ones who study at Appalachian State University. At this time, 32 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 48 countries are represented at Appalachian State. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, Australia, and Venezuela.

Online Learning at Appalachian State University

In 2019-2020, 18,957 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at Appalachian State has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 11th most popular in North Carolina for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of Appalachian State

During the most recent year for which we have data, the full-time undergraduate tuition at Appalachian State University was $7,410 for in-state students. Out-of-state students paid $22,217. The following table shows how Appalachian State is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Public Relations & Advertising	#1	#4
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services	#4	#31
Public Health	#16	#37
Human Development & Family Studies	#19	#74
Library Science	#22	#49
Library & Information Science	#22	#49
Teacher Education Subject Specific	#25	#61
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences	#25	#93
Communication & Media Studies	#28	#89
Health & Medical Administrative Services	#33	#120
Teacher Education Grade Specific	#40	#126
Curriculum & Instruction	#46	#145
Instructional Media Design	#55	#150
Education	#67	#169

Online Growth Rankings of Appalachian State

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Appalachian State University was 59.7%. This is the #590 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at Appalachian State regardless of major.

The following table shows the 1-year growth rate of Appalachian State majors that offer at least one online course. This table only includes majors with positive growth.

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Business Administration & Management	1%
Business, Management & Marketing	2%
Curriculum & Instruction	6%
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services	20%
Education	10%
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences	18%
Human Development & Family Studies	16%
Instructional Media Design	25%
Library & Information Science	11%
Library Science	11%
Public Administration & Social Service	6%
Public Health	17%
Public Relations & Advertising	1%
Social Work	7%
Special Education	13%
Teacher Education Grade Specific	8%
Teacher Education Subject Specific	16%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at Appalachian State ranks compared to all other partially online schools that offer a specific major. Note that the majors may or may not be offered online at Appalachian State.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Area Studies	#1
Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies	#5
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services	#15
Library & Information Science	#16
Library Science	#16
Public Relations & Advertising	#16
Sociology	#22
Gerontology	#27
Communication & Media Studies	#31
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	#40
Curriculum & Instruction	#60
Communication & Journalism	#67
Instructional Media Design	#79
Social Sciences	#89
Educational Administration	#91
Teacher Education Grade Specific	#101
Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies	#112
Health & Medical Administrative Services	#149
Nursing	#192
Education	#310
Business Administration & Management	#342
Health Professions	#455
Business, Management & Marketing	#457

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Appalachian State University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
General Psychology	307	0	5	0	312
Business Administration & Management	233	0	45	0	278
Health & Physical Education	228	0	21	0	249
Teacher Education Grade Specific	223	24	0	0	247
Teacher Education Subject Specific	138	13	37	0	188
Design & Applied Arts	167	0	0	0	167
Marketing	166	0	0	0	166
General Biology	148	0	12	0	160
Public Relations & Advertising	157	0	0	0	157
Nursing	143	3	6	0	152
Social Work	99	0	53	0	152
Educational Administration	0	65	59	12	136
Construction Management	131	0	0	0	131
Criminal Justice & Corrections	128	0	0	0	128
Accounting	86	0	38	0	124
Natural Resources Conservation	123	0	0	0	123
Political Science & Government	113	0	10	0	123
Communication Sciences	91	0	30	0	121
Special Education	39	49	29	0	117
Finance & Financial Management	113	0	0	0	113
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services	69	14	30	0	113
General English Literature	94	0	8	0	102
Computer Science	89	0	6	0	95
Management Information Systems	91	0	0	0	91
Communication & Media Studies	81	1	0	0	82
Environmental Control Technology	80	0	0	0	80
Insurance	76	0	0	0	76
Public Health	75	0	0	0	75
Student Counseling	0	26	43	0	69
Recreation Administration	59	0	0	0	59
Radio, Television & Digital Communication	55	0	0	0	55
Anthropology	55	0	0	0	55
Health & Medical Administrative Services	43	0	11	0	54
History	39	0	8	0	47
Chemistry	45	0	0	0	45
Physics	27	0	18	0	45
Journalism	41	0	0	0	41
Mathematics	38	0	3	0	41
Fine & Studio Arts	41	0	0	0	41
Public Administration	0	2	38	0	40
Human Development & Family Studies	38	0	0	0	38
Economics	38	0	0	0	38
Sociology	33	5	0	0	38
Hospitality Management	34	0	0	0	34
Computer Software & Applications	0	17	17	0	34
Instructional Media Design	0	16	16	0	32
Geography & Cartography	18	3	10	0	31
Drama & Theater Arts	29	0	0	0	29
Textile & Apparel Studies	28	0	0	0	28
Library & Information Science	0	0	27	0	27
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	9	17	0	26
Mental & Social Health Services	0	12	13	0	25
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	24	0	0	0	24
Food Science Technology	23	0	0	0	23
International Studies	21	0	0	0	21
Arts & Media Management	19	0	0	0	19
Music	12	0	7	0	19
Liberal Arts General Studies	17	0	0	0	17
Geological & Earth Sciences	17	0	0	0	17
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	16	0	16
International Business	15	0	0	0	15
Philosophy	15	0	0	0	15
Industrial Production Technology	0	0	11	0	11
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	8	0	3	0	11
Urban & Regional Planning	10	0	0	0	10
Allied Health Professions	9	0	0	0	9
Dance	9	0	0	0	9
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	7	0	0	0	7
Area Studies	0	3	4	0	7
Ethnic Studies	6	0	0	0	6
Religious Studies	6	0	0	0	6
Multilingual Education	0	3	0	0	3
Romance Languages	0	0	3	0	3
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	0	2	0	0	2
Graphic Communications	1	0	0	0	1
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology	0	0	0	0	0
Human Resource Management	0	0	0	0	0
Gerontology	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	4,368	267	654	12	5,301

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Clayhefner under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.