Everyone is entitled to their own perspective, but you haven’t provided your own perspective. You provided hearsay. You haven’t been to App State. You said
I am providing a first hand account which is what the OP asked for when they said “if you have visited any of these campuses.”
App State has been growing by leaps and bounds and definitely is not dated. They have a bunch of brand new dorms. They have a great football culture and have been ranked in the top 20 nationally. I think it’s probably the best football school in North Carolina. The ACC schools like NC State, UNC, Duke, Wake are always trying at football, but they never rise to the occasion like App State. I’m just mentioning the football because sports was one of the things @coastal2024 was looking for.
ECU is another big football school but I don’t think they have had the success that App State has had in recent years.
App has a pretty good business school too. I was disappointed that my D22 didn’t want to apply to App, but I think it was all just too familiar to her.
VA Tech is another school where football is really big. If you’re looking for that big game atmosphere it’s worth checking out to see if it ticks your other boxes.