Good afternoon (or whatever time you are reading this my hypothetical friend)!
after much deliberation Ive decided to try to apply to the app state honors college. I was wondering if any of you out there in the nebulous could tell me of my odds (the web site says you must have a 3.5 GPA to get in among other things but id love to hear from an alumni of the program what you really need to stand out!)
here are my current stats (I really hope i don’t sound arrogant (or stupid) but id like to lay it all on the table so you may judge me accordingly)
I have a 3.83 unweighted GPA and a 4.58 weighted (I was a admittedly a bit of a slacker freshmen and sophomore year and landed my self with a couple Bs)
my pre ACT (out of 36) was a 30 (but i am willing to study extensively to pull that up for the real deal)
my pre SAT was a 1780 (again hopefully higher in the real thing)
I have not yet taken the actual tests but they say the pre counterparts provide a base line at the very least
I am in beta club, started the teenage philosophers club, writing club, and am awaiting to see if i’ve gotten a merit scholarship for a local private school.
Thank you so much for any feedback!
and i apologize for yet another “chance me” thread but i’m outright terrified as I have high expectations of myself (almost to a fault unfortunately)
PS: any thoughts on the program of the school in general?
-your hypothetical friend
Appalachian State is a great school (especially if you like snow :p) with lots of school spirit, up-and-coming, with an increasingly strong academic profile. Your unweighted/weighted GPA definitely makes you a good contender for the Honors college and that 30 (equivalent to roughly a 2000 SAT) would be pretty good too. They also take course rigor into account but since your weighted GPA is 4.58 I assume you’re taking most academic core classes at honors/AP level.
You should also apply to UNC-Wilmington (same caliber, very strong for biology and film, but by the beach rather than in the mountains :p) and UNC-Chapel Hill, of course, plus UNC Asheville if you like the mountains (not the same vibe as Appalachian State though).
Note that with that profile, you’d get a full tuition scholarship at UAlabama for engineering or CS. Since you started the philosophy club, maybe not your cup of tea, but just saying. 
For philosophy, look into a few “serious” colleges where you’d likely get merit: Wooster, UDayton, Hendrix, Saint Louis University, New College Florida.
And, why not, Kenyon (John Green’s college, excellent for English, history, philosophy), Emory-Oxford, Fordham, Macalester, Reed, Bryn Mawr (if you’re a girl), Mount Holyoke?
Thank you so much for responding! again I hope to pull up both scores when I take them for real (which is coming up soon fingers crossed) I will take what you say to heart (and your mind reading skills are in fact excellent as yes i’m not a fan of anything technical)
thanks once again
-your much less hypothetical and more so actual friend 
i think i sent my reply as a comment (blast this insipid technology!) but ill send it again: Thank you so much for responding! again I hope to pull up both scores when I take them for real (which is coming up soon fingers crossed) I will take what you say to heart regarding my college options (and your mind reading skills are in fact excellent as yes i’m not a fan of anything technical) But unfortunately am bound to instate colleges and unless I make a perfect score on my upcoming SAT i’m not entirely sure scholarships will come with enough caliber to remedy that situation. But I digress from my pity party Are you an alumni/ student of app? if so how solid is it academically? atmospherically? (Ive heard answers ranging from its a redneck school to its one of the best schools in the south) sorry for peppering you with questions but eager sophomores will be eager sophomores I suppose
thanks once again
-your much less hypothetical and more so actual friend
It’s neither a “redneck school” nor “one of the best in the south” - the South has Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, Davidson, Emory, Tulane, UMiami… for top schools. I’d place Appalachian State a little below Elon and UNC Wilmington but it’s definitely up and coming.
Do include Davidson in your possibilities - a definite reach but depending on where you’re from in NC, it may be a reachable reach and their financial aid is excellent (all scholarships, no loans!)
As for “limited to NC” - why is that?
because of in-state tuition (dramatic music)
Yes… but if you run the NPCs on PRIVATE colleges where instate vs. out of state tuition doesn’t exist, you may have pleasant surprises, especially from those 400+miles away (students tend to apply within 300-400 miles of home, so if a college wants to be “national” and claim its students come from “all 50 states”, then it needs to entice students from less-represented states with better scholarships, which is called “preferential packaging”.) This doesn’t applyto schools like Harvard, or only to a tiny extent and for states like Wyoming, but any private college outside the top 25 is fair game.
Run the NPCs on colleges of interest and see if the results can be the same as in-state (look at tuition, fees, room&board).