NC has beautiful mountains, but High Point University is not near them. It’s about 100 miles away from the mountains. App State, UNC-Asheville, Western Carolina, Lees-MacRae, Brevard, Warren Wilson, Mars Hill, and a few more tiny schools like Montreat are all right in the mountains. All are in gorgeous settings.
Academically I would rank the mountain schools with App State first then UNC-A and Western and Warren Wilson, then Brevard and the rest. App State is somewhat selective. I would rank it as the 3rd or 4th best of the 17 school UNC system (UNC Chapel Hill, NC State, and UNC-Charlotte are the other top schools). App would be around the 6th or 7th best school in the state after Duke and Davidson and Wake Forest are added in.
Wanted to add that App State is harder to get in from OOS than in-state and more expensive but it is in the ballpark with Bucknell, probably a little bit less selective for OOS. Cost of attendance for OOS is around $41K. There are frats at App State but plenty of students who do not join. Greek life is there if you want it but not predominate.
That seems aspirational. Appalachian State OOS acceptance rate was 83.3% for Class of 2026 (In-state was 83.0%, overall 83.1%) while Bucknell’s Class of 2027 acceptance rate was 32%…students are relatively stronger academically (based on stats, than at App State). I do agree there may be outdoorsy similarities between the two campuses/locations.
For OP, I second (third?) UVM, UNH, CSU, Ithaca. Adding Fort Lewis College in Durango and Southern Oregon.
Seeing some louisiana recs on here and louisiana is such an underrated nature state! I’m from north LA and there are a lot of wooded areas and farmland. But south louisiana has the swamps which sounds ugly, but the cypresses and bayous and everything is so much prettier than you’d think. There is hiking in some areas, but not mountain hiking. Just trails in the woods. And there are less of them than in some areas. But there is a ton of wildlife. And if you’re interested in conservation, our coast is literally disappearing underwater so I’m sure there are jobs in that area and we need more people working on conservation. But if you want mountains, snow, or don’t like the heat (today will get up to 103 with a heat index of 112 in north LA), this isn’t the place for you. LA tech will have a lot of guys who hunt and fish, if that’s your thing. Also big on engineering. Generally seen as pretty conservative/country but you’ll find diverse people. Pretty sure there would be a lot of wildlife stuff, but maybe in a more agriculturally focused way. Idk much about UNO. I’m the same age as you I just live in louisiana so I thought I’d share
Maybe I was a little aspirational. Nice link, btw.
Looking at the Common Data Sets for both the high school GPA is higher at App State (3.98) vs Bucknell (3.63). The 75th percentiles of SAT and ACT scores are higher at Bucknell but the 25th is the same.
I know a LOT of kids who go to App State and they are bright kids. I live in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill Triangle area of NC and App State is a very popular school with smart kids from this region who want a state school, but want to get away from the Triangle and UNC and NC State.
When my A/B D22 was looking at schools App State and Bucknell were both on her list. She ended up not applying to either because she knew too many people at App and Bucknell was too Greek and didn’t have the programs she wanted. I think for a kid who is looking at Bucknell App State is also worth a look.
That’s because NC has its own way of calculating GPA that emphasizes rigor by generously adding points to A and B grades in the most rigorous courses and uses that (weighted) GPA. I think that a couple years ago UNCW had 3.9 and UNC CH 4.3 for their averages. Colleges like Bucknell don’t so the GPA can’t be compared directly.
Nahhh. The state of North Carolina has required all high school juniors, whether college bound or not, to take the ACT since 2012, so most kids don’t take the SAT in NC.
Bucknell’s 75th percentile for the SAT is 1390 according to their Common Data Set. That is not analogous to UNC Chapel Hill where the 75th percentile for the SAT is 1500.
Almost half of students at Bucknell (49%) score in the 20s or below on the ACT compared to 30% for UNC Chapel Hill.
I think Bucknell is similar to Elon in NC, but Elon is not in the mountains. Elon’s 75th percentile for the SAT is 1330.
It’s not in the geographic area defined by the OP and WAY bigger than Bucknell, but if you are interested in studying Wildlife Bio, it should be on your list to explore. S23 will be attending this year. He already had a lot of research under his belt and was able to really evaluate the program and he felt it had the most opportunities. It also can’t be beat for access to outdoor activities and having other students that want to engage in them with you. They have an amazing outdoor/rec club and kids are always taking advantage of the location on the weekends. DS was looking for “outdoorsy” roommates and had no problem finding them (although he is in the Outdoor Leadership RLC, so, of course, they were going to be outdoorsy). If your major is in Warner, one of your semesters will be spent at the Mountain Campus that borders Rocky Mountain National Park. There is a tiny Greek system and the only people that even know Greek life exists are the people that choose to take part.
There is no environmental science (undergrad) major, but many similar majors. Lots of wildlife/natural resource majors in The Warner College of Natural Resources, environmental engineering in the School of Engineering, and environmental studies in the School of Liberal Arts. Check out the majors in the Warner College of Natural Resources. Human Dimensions of Natural Resources is pretty interesting. DS decided to double major in Wildlife Bio and Human Dimensions of NR. They also have an amazing honors college that you can apply to if you have above a 3.8 GPA.
The University of Colorado does have an Environmental Science major, but a much bigger greek system and not as laid back as CSU.