Appalachian State

Appalachian State University, located in the heart of North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, has a student enrollment of about 17,000 graduate and undergraduate students. The school has a student-teacher ratio of 17:1. Part of the University of North Carolina system, the university offers roughly 140 degree programs and 1,500 courses. Appalachian State was founded in 1899 as Watauga Academy by Blanford B. Dougherty and his brother Dauphin D. Dougherty to educate teachers for the mountains of northwestern North Carolina. It became known as Appalachian State Teachers College in 1929 and adopted its current name in 1967.