Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northwestern North Carolina, Appalachian State University has built a national reputation for academic excellence. Faculty members—who enjoy ASU's student/faculty ratio of 17:1 and average class size of 24—are able to take a personal interest in student progress, often becoming mentors, advisers, and friends. That can only happen in a close-knit community.

Appalachian offers more than 140 undergraduate and graduate programs and is committed to equality of opportunity. The university is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

ASU feels a special responsibility to the Appalachian region and seeks to contribute to the understanding, appreciation, and preservation of its unique culture.

Points of pride

• Appalachian placed fourth among the South's top public universities and ninth among the South's public and private universities in U.S. News & World Report's 2009 America's Best Colleges Guide.

• Appalachian is ranked 29th in the nation in Kiplinger magazine’s 2008-09 list of the top 100 values in public colleges and universities in the nation. The ranking is based on the in-state cost of attending the university. 

• An Appalachian Summer Festival, the university's annual summer arts celebration, has been named one of the top twenty events in the Southeast by the Southeast Tourism Society for more than a decade.

• The Institute of International Education recognized Appalachian as one of the nation's top fifteen comprehensive universities in the number of undergraduates taking part in international education programs.

• The Reich College of Education has the largest undergraduate teacher preparation program in North Carolina and is consistently ranked near or at the top of all programs preparing teachers in the state.

• Appalachian’s Adult Basic Skills Professional Development Project (ABSPD) institutes impact over 8,000 Adult Basic Skills (literacy) instructors annually.

• More than $15 million in research grants and contracts was awarded to the university in 2007-08.

• Appalachian's GEAR UP program works to accelerate the academic achievement of middle and secondary school students in surrounding counties, so that increasing numbers will graduate from high school and enroll and succeed in college. 

• The Appalachian and the Community Together (ACT) office provided an estimated $1.85 million of volunteer service to the community during the 2007-08 school year.

Since the 1950's Appalachian has been providing educational programs to North Carolina residents at sites away from main campus. The programs were primarily at the graduate level until 1999, when the state of North Carolina began funding distance education. Today, in addition to delivering courses to over 80 off-campus undergraduate and graduate cohorts at various locations in western North Carolina, Appalachian offers fully online programs in the areas of New Media and Global Education, Online Teaching, and Gerontology.

Many of our distance education students have family, work, and other responsibilities that may not allow them to come to our campus regularly because of schedule, location, or time limitations. Distance education helps to fulfill ASU's mission by offering certificates and degree programs that meet the needs of a diverse group of students. Our faculty members are committed to serving your learning needs and can be reached by email, fax, phone, or other web-based technologies. For online programs, most of your learning takes place at a place convenient for you—including your personal computer—although, depending on the program, you may be required occasionally to come to a location for an exam or laboratory exercise.

For answers to many questions that you may have, click here.

For more information contact the Office of Extension and Distance Education at 800-355-4084.