The University of North Carolina - Asheville

Faculty:
UNC Asheville is a small school. Since they are a small school, they have less students to cater to. That means the faculty is easily accessible and most of the staff has open office hours. Most of the time, they're very knowledgeable about their areas and will help you if and when you need it. But you have to make the effort to go to them. They will help you only if you talk to them. The faculty, no matter how helpful they may be, cannot read your mind.

Campus:
The campus is small enough for someone to know their way around, yet big enough for people to host events. This is useful for clubs, sports programs, and anything else you can name. There are two main student organizations who host the activities in UNCA, SAIL and Underdog Productions. In that respect, the campus is mostly a place where you can kick back and relax for a while.

Extracurricular:
The sports program is not overly hyped. There are students who are athletes, but they aren't given any special treatment or granted any massive popularity. The students are very involved across campus and there are many clubs, both official and unofficial, that students can join. The clubs range from the more formal clubs such as the Undertones or even Underdog Productions to the informal such as the Anime club or the Film club.

Social:
At UNCA, it is more challenging to be an outcast than to find friends. All you have to do is approach people and make conversation. There is not a big fraternity scene at UNCA. Some people would even say it's nonexistent. As a small school, UNCA doesn't have a lot of parties in the dorms or anything crazy like that. The parties are off-campus and students can have a good night's sleep/study while they are on-campus.

Political Atmosphere:
The school and the surrounding area are both very liberal. Conservatives can find their niche, however. UNCA is a big enough school for this to happen and a small enough school so that you won't get lost in the crowd.

Food:
From what I've heard, the Dining Hall has improved greatly this year. For meal plans, I would suggest Carte Blanc. This meal plan requires little management and can feed a college student well. You can get 25 meals a week at the Dining Hall and 12 meals a week at the Highsmith Union. It's much better than the other two in terms of amount of food you get.

Dorms:From what I've heard, Governor's Hall is the best. West and South Ridge are also very good from what I've heard. Founders(my dorm) and Mills are the more social dorms, and they are pretty good. Governor's Village is probably the worst out of all of them. You do not want to go to Governor's Village.

1st Year Male -- Class 2014

Collaboration/Competitive: A+, Campus Maintenance: B

Some of these characterizations of UNCA are accurate, and some aren?t. First of all, it is indeed a VERY liberal school ?right up there with the mother ship in Chapel Hill. That said, conservative students (all five of them) are tolerated, if not embraced.

The facilities are surprisingly first-rate for a small school. For example, the biology department has an electron microscope ? most unusual for such a small campus. Public access computers are all over the place. Academics are top-rate, make no mistake about that. I know a girl who did very well on her SATs in a college-prep curriculum and was rejected by UNCA. It seems like the admissions standards get tougher every year. Enrollment has expanded comparatively little over the years compared to WCU and ASU.

That said, I saw a number of bright kids so consumed with social activism that their academics suffered (shades of UC Berkeley in the 60s).

For a school with such a supposed free spirit reputation, I found the professors quite regimented. Every course I took had a syllabus and every instructor stuck to it religiously. We knew exactly what was expected of us from one class to the next. Still, the professors are very caring and generous with their time. I consider myself quite bright and hardworking, but it was a challenge to maintain good grades there. They'll definitely push you.

There is a certain amount of hypocrisy, however. Despite all the talk of ?diversity?, UNCA is as white as the driven snow. I?m almost certain UNCA is the least diverse campus in the UNC system. In fairness however, there are few people of color in the mountain region of NC, so it might be difficult to recruit minorities to attend college so far from home.

Through my studies at UNCA, I learned how to speak, understand, read, and write Spanish. I also learned a great deal about the history, geography, and culture of Spain and Latin America. Some might say, ?Well, duh! Doesn't everybody who majors in Spanish everywhere learn that?? Based on my interaction with people with Spanish degrees from other colleges, my answer is ?No.?

Count me among the 74% majority who would definitely attend UNCA again.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

This University is amazing! I used this site extensively last year during my college search and ended up here; I can easily say that I don't think I could be happier with my choice. Asheville fosters a fantastic environment. The school is up-and-coming as a high-quality, great-value public liberal arts school. I've only taken one semester of work, but I've had a great experience so far. The professors are extremely friendly and approachable. I'm going to be doing an arts and community research project next semester through the honors program, and the head of the program has been EXTREMELY helpful so far with that. When I expressed interest in doing the project, he immediately picked up the phone, called another faculty who was an expert in the field, and asked if he'd be willing to mentor me. Then he said I'd probably be able to get an internship in town, and I'm a first semester freshman. I think this little anecdote attests to the quality and concern of the faculty for the students. All around it's been great. My psych class is sort of boring, stats at 8am is a pain in the ass, but my English teacher is inspired, and my liberal studies teacher is experienced and engaging. The work's tough but not overbearing.

Now downtown Asheville is absolutely the greatest fucking place. The atmosphere of the school and the town are similar and they're definitely conducive to a certain kind of person. It's a very artsy, offbeat, bohemian feeling. Lots of cafes, book stores, some boutiques, some hippy music/clothes stores, lotta little music venues and a few bigger ones, tons of art galleries, restaurants cheap and expensive, an art museum and a big center where the Asheville symphony plays, music almost every night of the week somewhere. During the warmer weather there's frequent street festivals, almost every weekend some sort of arts or sustainability or cultural festivity. The weather is summery until the end of October, and still within the 50's -60's at the end of November right now. Mountains are beautiful, but you can't see them that much from campus. Lots of musicians and music appreciators at Asheville, strong programs that I know of are English, Environmental Studies, Music Technology, and Art. Lotta majors in all of these. A friend of mine is dissatisfied with the jazz music program, and their musicians are pretty good, but I'm originally from the Boston area, and the school can't compare with places up there like Berklee, etc. Ahh dunno too much about other programs.

Anyway, that's about all I got. Almost all the students are extremely interesting people with their own hobbies and pursuits, who are very chill and interested in other people as well. I got paired with some phenomenal roommates, so sort of lucked out. We also having a living room space in our dorm, which is only the case with one of the dorm buildings, but overall the dorms are fairly well-sized. The food is decent, there's a cafe and a food court in the student union. Deserts at the cafe, however, are decadent. Shit. Don't get me going about the deserts. Ah, the fraternity scene is very weak as is the sports scene. There is one frat and two soror's, and a Division I basketball team, but sports are just not big. Big things are music, environmental stuff, going downtown is common, parties are common on the weekend but most occur off campus and thus are accessible or avoidable depending on where you stand on that. Drug use is pretty common, low-key drinking and a lot of marijuana. And most students smoke cigarettes, but I'm a non-smoker and find this not to be a big issue. Overall, the place is fantastic for artsy-types and folky-hippy-intellectual ish music lovers, offbeat people and anyone that's dissatisfied with a lot of the bs of normal "university life" and wants a stimulating, friendly atmosphere with great people.

1st Year Female -- Class 2013

Faculty Accessibility: A+, Useful Schoolwork: A-