My son wanted to go to App because it is my alma mater.
It has a reputation as a weed school. I wasn’t willing to pay out of state tuition.
When I was there, it was hippie Vietnam vets and rednecks.
I’ve been there while in nearby Blowing Rock a few times in the last ten years. One of the kids has some land on the outskirts.
It is still that mix of college town funk and NC hill country that you remember.
The did have that armed citizen take-down of a shooter on that campus we had a thread on about five years ago.