@ucbalumnus Regarding UNC-Asheville, my D is also considering it. But some stats regarding students concern us. Freshman retention rate of 80%, 4 year grad rate of 38%, students over the age of 25 is 17%, part-time students is 16%, and to some extent it is a commuter campus. Also, compared to private LACs, it is underfunded.
What D likes is that it is more left-leaning than any other NC public and is in a lovely city. And it is equal to App State in SAT/ACT ranges, and nearly as high as NCSU. We live in central NC and have never known anyone who went to UNC-A. UNC Wilmington and App State and ECU and NCSU, that’s where most students go. A few to UNC, and virtually nobody gets into Duke. (Though Duke decals and bumper stickers and flags are common in our rural county, as its basketball team is much more popular than our Charlotte NBA team).
But my D really wants to go out of state, which relates to this thread you began. Is an elite (relative term, related to student) college worth the extra expense, when state-supported colleges are much less expensive? We think it really comes down to the experience the student can get from a small college where most students live on campus and students come from all over the USA, the world.