University of North Carolina at Asheville Top Questions

My classmates on a day to day basis are team players, we are all in this together and it reflects on the attitudes and actions of those around me, we all help one another.

This is a friendly, homy school. There are not many extracurricular activities with the school, so you have to find your own plans on the weekend in town. The professors are experts and are wonderful teachers, and you are definitely pushed academically. People are nice, but sometimes it is awkward being a christian there. Culture is very diverse, and alcohol runs aplenty. No vibrant greek life.

There is a wide variety of students here. So no matter who you are there is always someone to connect with. The students are generally very accepting of any style and if someone dresses or acts unusual the response is always "It's Asheville" and we just accept the person for who they are. Most of the students are from North Carolina and predominantly western NC. The usual dress attire can range from casual to fancy to sweats to styles that don't really have a classification (these are my favorite because you get to see student's creative side).

UNCA likes to talk about how diverse it is. Racially, there is almost no diversity. There are few religious people and most students and professors are liberal. But, there is a huge amount of diversity considering sexual preference and backgrounds. Queer studies is a burgeoning field of study and of interest to many UNCA students. Also, there is a pretty wide range of socioeconomic status amongst students. I love it!

This is the same response to my question on stereotypes, which explains the type of students one can find at this school. Please see below: White Upper-middle-class and Homosexuals, This is stereotypically accurate because we are a liberal-arts school that offers special courses in Women's Studies and LGBTQ studies, which, of course, appeals to the LGBTQ community because they can find an academic career path that accepts who they are and studies where he/she/? comes from. Also, Asheville is known for being a very liberal town within a very conservative state, therefore attracting, in general, many liberal thinking-people, including homosexuals. As for the White Upper-middle-class status, although we are a public university, we do not offer any programs, contrary to the LGBTQ studies we offer, there is not a strong support or availability for African American studies, which hinders our appeal to the African-American community. From what I have heard, steps are being taken to encourage a more diverse campus to increase our appeal to African-Americans, Asian-Americans, etc

There are tons of equal rights groups on campus: LGBT is probably the biggest just because so many students here identify themselves as "queer." I think a student who is very turned off by homosexuality should not attend this school. People comfortable with others of different orientation would find that it doesn't detract from their college life. Most students are from North Carolina. As an out-of-stater, I felt out of place the first semester because I didn't know any of the references people were making. But I quickly became accustomed to NC geography and local names and could join in almost any conversation. Being out of state actually made me cooler as I got older. Some students are on a lot of financial aid and it may frustrate you if you are paying a ton for education. One student told me once, "Oh yeah, they're practically paying me to go to school here. So I'm here, but I'm pretty much just going to write my novel." I'm paying three times what in-state students are paying so I didn't really appreciate that comment. Most students are left, but they won't hate you if you're conservative. Just get ready for some serious debate if you share your "right" opinions un-backed.

The students here are about as liberal as they come. There are many LGBT students and a lot of atheists. Everyone tends to be open-minded and accepting of people as long as they don't feel like people are trying to push their beliefs on them. A would say that anyone who is extremely conservative or religious would feel out of place here. Most of the students here are caucasian. There is a sprinkling of all sorts of minorities, but if you look around, most people are white. If you are looking at 4 tables in the dining hall, you would probably see most people dressed in jeans and t-shirts. Most of the students are from North Carolina and are middle or lower class. They tend to be very down-to-earth. Students tend to be very politically aware and usually on the left or center. While they talk about politics, most people don't talk about money or future careers. It's more "I'll deal with a job when I get there."

The student body is primarily white, but I have not observed even a hint of racial discrimination on campus. There is about a 3:2 ratio of females to males, and there is a high percentage of LGBTQA population. I'm not certain about socio-economic status, but I know that my two best friends here are both on government, need-based grants and would not have been able to come to college without them. The only student I could see feeling out of place here is a student who is made uncomfortable by people who are different or who follow alternative lifestyles, because this is an incredibly diverse campus. There is a noticeable liberal preference here, but opposing ideas are always accepted.

We have a lot of hippies and hipsters I suppose, but nobody is judgmental here. There's a wide range of sexualities, but tradition religions are not extremely present because of the liberal vibe and we're not too diverse. No one can really be out of place here, we have groups and all kinds of nice people. And there's no set attire for classes--we're used to seeing everything, the funkier the better. Most students are native to the state but we do have about 13{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} out of state. I'm from Chicago. Also, there's definitely a variety of financial backgrounds.

Most UNCA students are white, liberal and from NC. But we also have some students who are religious (Baptist, Catholic, Jewish,Muslim) and many not from NC. What is cool about Out of State students is that out of states students aren't just from surrounding states: you'll meet ppl from NY, NJ, NH, Vermont, Chicago, Ohio, and California. There are more students coming from farther and farther away. I also have many friends who are considered in state students bc they went to hs in NC but they grew up in countries such as Italy, Finland, and Israel. Its cool as a student to see UNCA becoming more diverse but it is still a process.