This fall, App State enrolls 21,798 Mountaineer students, a 1.1% increase over last fall and its largest undergraduate population to date. Fall 2025 enrollment at App State was boosted by a 28% rise in online students and the highest-ever number of transfer students.

On Aug. 15, App State broke ground on a new, 85,000-square-foot multiuse facility that will replace its previous Sofield Family Indoor Practice Facility. The new facility will expand practice space for multiple athletic programs while serving multiple university areas and allowing for public–private health care collaborations.

On Aug. 12, new and returning Mountaineer students began moving into their Boone campus residence halls, in preparation for the first day of fall 2025 classes at App State on Monday, Aug. 18. More than 6,000 students will have settled into their App State homes by Monday.

App State archaeologist Dr. Alice Wright and her team of student researchers have unearthed dozens of artifacts at App State’s Blackburn Vannoy Estate and Farm in Ashe County that date back to prehistory — evidence that, 8,000 to 1,000 years ago, Native American peoples used the area as a campsite.

App State’s student-powered solar vehicle team, Team Sunergy, has secured yet another podium finish to add to its consistent wins in the annual Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix. This year, the team earned second place in its class and the event’s Teamwork Award. Team Sunergy is working to launch its next-generation solar vehicle.

App State’s Fred Webb Jr. Outdoor Geology Lab, also known as the “Rock Garden” — a resource for geology students, researchers and K–12 school groups — has been fully restored after the damage it sustained from Hurricane Helene. The garden now features more than 50 boulders, including several new specimens.

Ground-penetrating radar and App State interdisciplinary detective work have revealed 105 graves of enslaved people at Fort Defiance, adding new layers of history to the Lenoir-area landmark and confirming generations of family stories.

Over 40 local middle school student-athletes took part in App State’s Fuel Your Game Watauga program this spring, learning how proper nutrition can boost athletic performance. App State nutrition graduate students engaged the students in discussions on food groups and shared nutritional facts.

App State honored 20 future military leaders during a commissioning ceremony held May 8 on the Boone campus, during which the Mountaineer Battalion members and App State graduates took the Oath of Office and received the gold bars signifying their rank as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army.