<p>ASU is a very popular school in our part of NC. Every kid I know who goes there,loves it. S visits friends there and loves it too. After the last visit he said he would have gone there if they had the program he wanted. It is 2 hours to the airport in Charlotte. There is a small regional airport in Johnson City TN which is 55 miles away but that would probably involve flying to Knoxville or Charlotte and changing planes. Freshmen can have cars at ASU in off campus lots. The weather is cold in the winter but not snow every day or even every week. Boone is a really cool place and ASU has lots of school spirit (especially in football season). A few years ago when MTV was doing a Road Rules college tour show, ASU was the only stop in NC.</p>
<p>Also...forgot to say that although our area is just a couple of hours away from ASU, we don't see many coming home on weekends. I think there is plenty to do to keep them in Boone.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info. If we visit in March, I will post about it.</p>
<p>candace, I am looking forward to reading about it. It sounds great except for the major issue about gettting to an airport.</p>
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Also...forgot to say that although our area is just a couple of hours away from ASU, we don't see many coming home on weekends. I think there is plenty to do to keep them in Boone.
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<p>That's very helpful PackMom, being only 10% OOS would not be a problem if most kids stay on campus.</p>
<p>They are good lderochi, in fact we watched most of the championship game on TV this year.</p>
<p>I am amazed that no one has mentioned the Appalachian State promo video that was circulating for a while. Somewhere there was a hilarious commentary on it, but I can't find it. However this <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Hot_Hot_(meme%5B/url%5D)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Hot_Hot_(meme)</a> may give you the flavor, and it includes a link to the video.</p>
<p>Is this the link you were looking for?</p>
<p>What I was looking for (obviously not hard enough) was this:<a href="http://www.progressiveboink.com/archive/appalachian.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.progressiveboink.com/archive/appalachian.htm</a>, which shows up further down on the page you very kindly found -- an analysis of why the video is so darned funny.</p>
<p>candace..you might also consider James Madison in Virginia or Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. Madison was historically a teacher's college for women and it still boasts the most rigorous place in Virginia public schools to study music or education. My sister got her teacher's certificate and training at Madison. However, entry into their education or music track is pretty competitive because we have so many strong students who apply from our corridor of stellar high schools. I know some great kids who were suprised to not get into their teaching tracks.
Towson in Maryland is another former teachers college which does a lot of teacher training. I think Goucher does, too. Also I am wondering about the University of Delaware...a place I enjoyed haunting as a teen which has a grerat ambiance.<br>
Applachian State is very laid back and granola but like UNC Asheville, it has a creative vibe and the positive influence of beautiful scenery and people who are not stressed out and appear balanced</p>
<p>I was at a dinner party the other evening with a Mary Washington family whose girl is going to get certified there and they do not certify for Secondary education there, only elementary. But it is a really fine school that feels like a private school and has many great kids.</p>
<p>another Duke 2009 mom</p>
<p>And don't forget Roanoke! I mean as long as Faline has you going up route 81 and all!</p>
<p>App has a great job placement rate in education and music therapy,and has the highest pass rate on the CPA exam of any school in the country (or so I've been told). The population of Boone is about the same as the number of students and the population of the county is only 42,000. The weather turns cool in September/October and warms up again in April/May (gardeners don't set out tomatoes until after Mother's day). Here's a local weather site:
<a href="http://www.booneweather.com/forecast/boone%5B/url%5D">http://www.booneweather.com/forecast/boone</a>
More often than not the town gets just a dusting of snow while higher elevations may get several inches. Most of the ski slopes make their own snow now. There's a fairly new Best Western next to the Country Inn and Suites. You can sometimes get a coupon to the Broyhill through this site:
<a href="http://realdealsnow.com/business.php3%5B/url%5D">http://realdealsnow.com/business.php3</a></p>
<p>Traveling in or out of Boone might take a little longer during peak leaf season and/or Friday afternoons. The town is a nice mix of arts/tourism, the university, and local folk whose families have been in the area for generations. Oh - there's also a textbook rental program. Kids seem to want to stay in the area after they graduate.</p>
<p>yes, indeed kathiep!...my youngest S is in HS Honors English this semester with a graduate of the very fine Roanoke College in Salem, VA and I am impressed with her teaching at the secondary level, and we also had a Roanoke College trained foreign language teacher who was excellent earlier in middle school. Roanoke College offers very personal relationships with full professors.</p>
<p>Hey! If Faline and Kathiep have you on the corridor I have to throw my 2 cents in. There's also Lynchburg -- didn't click with my son but I've heard very good things and the campus is quite nice. Also in Lynchburg, there's Randolph-Macon WC -- going co-ed and becoming Randolph College, so I think the campus vibe is pretty unsettled. I'd also suggest Elon, no surprise there, but it's gonna be well out of your way if you head up 81. But if I WERE to hypothetically suggest a detour down I-40 to see Elon :) I would tell you it has a very good education school and a very high percentage of out of state students. </p>
<p>Just south of JMU is Bridgewater -- a place that surprised both me and my son. It was clearly his number 2 choice, leapfrogging several other schools that are discussed more often on this board. </p>
<p>Faline mentioned UDel. For a flagship state school it's a very nice, manageable size. Newark (learn how to pronouce it right -- NEW ark, not newerk) it's a great college town. With all that entails, good and bad. Bit of a party reputation, but good solid academics particularly in the sciences thanks to DuPont and Glaxo dollars. App State, IMHO, definitely has more of a laid-back vibe than UDel. </p>
<p>Now, as to the video. It was pretty bad, but all in all ASU got a bad rap. It was never a recruiting video, it was never intended to be seen as a professional production or an example of what the App State communications school could do -- it was just a cheap, cheesy video shown mainly to older alumni groups. </p>
<p>Many of the schools mentioned in this thread are contained in the Master Trip thread if you want to poke around more -- which has seemed to disappear, now that I think of it. Where did it go??</p>
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Many of the schools mentioned in this thread are contained in the Master Trip thread if you want to poke around more -- which has seemed to disappear, now that I think of it. Where did it go??
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<p>Okay, I have no idea what's going on. I coudn't find the thread at all using the search function, but I was able to find a message that linked to it. The actual master trip thread is:</p>
<p>I haven't taken the next step to see if the actual links in that thread still work. If so, there are some pointers to trip reports for Randolph-Macon, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Bridgewater, JMU, UMW, etc.</p>
<p>In S.C., check out Winthrop University. It is a small state u. that was originally a teacher's college. Neighbor's D is a grad. and had a great experience there. It's in Rock Hill SC which is right off a major interstate, just south of Charlotte NC, major airport close by. Also in NC, East Carolina University is also known for it's education department. It too was originally a teachers college.</p>
<p>Thanks for more great info. My daughter might consider going as far north as Virginia, but she would rather find schools in North and South Carolina. She also has a couple of possible Florida schools just in case she changes her mind about going out of state. Winthrop looks interesting. Does it have many out of state students? Elon is on her list. My neighbor's child was offered a tennis scholarship to attend, but she followed her boyfriend to UF instead. My neighbor really liked the school, so we will visit. East Carolina might be too large. Her first choice is College of Charleston. App State would be alot different. She spent two summers at camp near Asheville, so it sounds like it would be a similiar environment. She is not sure if she would like the cold weather. So visiting different types of schools is important.
Faline- I hope my daughter finds a great school that she loves as much as our sons love Duke!</p>
<p>ooh, ooh Candace, tellus about College of Charleston.</p>
<p>We are visting College of Charleston in March. There is an open house that is during her spring break, so it works out well. I think we might also visit Clemson during this time. How many other schools we will visit is still up in the air. She doesn't want to spend all of her vacation with her parents. Go figure!</p>
<p>Candace, is she looking at UNC-Asheville as well? </p>
<p>I second the suggestion of Winthrop -- a lot of good things about Winthrop. It is primarily populated by SC residents, so there might be the suitcase school problem (particularly as there is no football team keeping people around). More diversity than most of the other schools mentioned so far. Financially, it's a huge bargain if your daughter would be in the running for a merit scholarship. Out of state tuition is waived for those receiving at least a $500 scholarship. So that $500 scholarship suddenly becomes a $7500+ scholarship. Rock Hill is much more of a city environment than you'll see at App State, though. Just food for thought.</p>
<p>And as PackMom said, the school was founded as a teacher's college -- as a result the education department is particularly good.</p>
<p>UNC Asheville is still on the long and getter longer list. This summer we will visit more schools. I wonder how many we will end up visiting? What is the record? I don't want to visit so many that it all becomes a blur. She wants the school to be on the smaller side, so 10,000 or less. Duke, at 6,000. is the perfect size. My son applied ED to Duke and was never even interested in any other schools. We did visit UNC and Emory, but skipped Georgetown at the last minute and took a detour to Charleston for fun. While there, I toured College of Charleston and thought it might be a great fit for my daughter. She has since researched the school and it has become her top choice. The area seems like a great place to go to school.</p>