Appalachian State University’s enrollment growth encompasses:

• Long-term and short-term planning.
• Strategic resource investments for students, faculty and staff.
• Strong focus on sustaining our history of providing access to education to rural North Carolinians, and staying true to our institutional mission and core values.

What characterizes App State?

A long-established public institution, App State continues to honor our founding commitment to educational access and excellence and our rural mountain heritage through teaching, research and service.

The university is characterized by its capabilities to take charge and problem-solve. Our faculty and staff hold a strong commitment to ensuring the quality of the academic enterprise and work daily to ensure App State’s position as a premier public institution.

The university excels in developing visionary academic programs and is lauded nationally for its academic achievements and the value and experience offered to students. Each day, our faculty demonstrate their commitment to excellence in teaching and to ensuring students’ research and learning go beyond the classroom to serve our community and state.

How is 20,000+ enrollment helping App State and the region?

App State exceeded an enrollment of 20,000 students in 2020, after years of steady growth, and the university enrolls 21,570 students for the 2024–25 school year. The university’s future enrollment growth will be focused online or at on-site locations outside of the Boone area.

Exceeding 20,000 students has allowed the university to work with the UNC System on assigning a new peer group for the university, so that our reference institutions for resource allocations will be more relevant to today’s App State. The peer group was approved by the UNC System Board of Governors in November 2020.

Read the list of peer institutions.

In keeping with the System’s preference for assigning smaller peer groups, App State’s peer group is now 10 institutions, rather than 18. The 10, which include three new institutions, all have enrollments greater than 20,000 and report significant research awards. These indicators — enrollment and research funding — should have positive implications for App State.

What will future enrollment growth look like?

App State’s continued focus on enrollment growth aligns with its mission of educational access and excellence — allowing the university to work to meet the evolving needs of the state and region.

The university continues to emphasize the following:

• App State Online programs and the App State Hickory campus are the areas with the most potential for any increased enrollment.
• App State will continue to admit qualified students and further our founders’ mission of serving rural areas and increasing access to higher education for the people of North Carolina.
• App State will continue to strengthen its already notable retention and graduation rates.