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libertaire
liberator



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Going to school for agriculture
#11468551 - 11/16/09 05:09 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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I was wondering if anyone knew of some good schools to check out for agriculture. I'm seriously considering a major life change, and this is one of the paths I've been considering. Also, is agriculture a growing field? (No pun intended.) I mean, it would be logical that there is always a demand for it, people have to eat, right? Especially with the growing local/organic movement, it would seem to be a smart business move as well as something that would fit my personality perfectly. Any advice is much obliged.
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GabbaDj
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Re: Going to school for agriculture [Re: libertaire]
#11468789 - 11/16/09 05:49 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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UC Davis
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Dishez
Swamp Crawler

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Re: Going to school for agriculture [Re: GabbaDj]
#11468919 - 11/16/09 06:11 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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Cook College (Rutgers) has a good program from what I understand. Major life change as in new career or getting yourself together to start a career in general?
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libertaire
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Re: Going to school for agriculture [Re: Dishez]
#11469456 - 11/16/09 07:28 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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As in I'm 2/3 of the way through college for music education and am realizing that I would rather throw away the last 4 years to do something I actually enjoy than spend the rest of my life doing something I hate.
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demiu5
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Re: Going to school for agriculture [Re: libertaire]
#11469820 - 11/16/09 08:30 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
libertaire said: I was wondering if anyone knew of some good schools to check out for agriculture. I'm seriously considering a major life change, and this is one of the paths I've been considering. Also, is agriculture a growing field? (No pun intended.) I mean, it would be logical that there is always a demand for it, people have to eat, right? Especially with the growing local/organic movement, it would seem to be a smart business move as well as something that would fit my personality perfectly. Any advice is much obliged.
agriculture is one of the most stable fields. kinda like education. however, depending on what you're willing, or not, to do, should play a part. what i mean is, if you're fine with spreading chemicals on everything and don't mind selling them to people, go to a school with a conventional agriculture program (mass production, polluting, etc...). if you're interested in sustainable or permaculture forms of ag, go to a school that offers either some courses in them, that approach ag from those standpoints, or has a full certificate in that field of study (horticulture generally equals sound agricultural methods, but not necessarily so be sure to look at the actual course listings/descriptions, often found with a little searching in .pdf format on the dept's webpage)
uc davis michigan state iowa state southern illinois there's a few in oregon i think wisconsin montana i think one or two in florida
there are databases of schools where you can search for general or specfic degree informaation
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libertaire
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Re: Going to school for agriculture [Re: demiu5]
#11469894 - 11/16/09 08:42 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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Cool thanks for the info. I would be interested in the later, organic/sustainable for sure. I was also curious, what does it take to be accepted to an agriculture department? Would the fact that I've had above a 3.0 gpa for the past 4 years be enough, or would there be other stuff they would look at? I've only been accepted to college once, and that acceptance was based on a musical audition, so I'm not really sure how things work in other fields.
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Compass
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Re: Going to school for agriculture [Re: libertaire]
#11470014 - 11/16/09 09:00 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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Where are you located, or are you planning on going out of state?
If you want to go to a research university, the application is basically the same as other majors - grades, test scores, essay. You just have to be a good student or show somehow that you are interested and motivated.
To get hands-on, you do an internship or apprenticeship. You can make some connections through the university or you need family connections, etc.
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libertaire
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Re: Going to school for agriculture [Re: Compass]
#11470069 - 11/16/09 09:07 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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I'm in New Jersey, but I'm willing, and would likely prefer to go elsewhere. Good info though, I'll have to look more into it on my own, just wanted to get a general sense. Thanks for the help.
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astatide
all we have is now



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Re: Going to school for agriculture [Re: libertaire]
#11470826 - 11/16/09 10:43 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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Definitely look into Oregon. I'm in Washington and the entire PNW is great for organic and sustainable practices related to food. I'm studying food science which is considered an agricultural science at most schools, and I looked at Oregon State University when I was trying to decide on a school. Ultimately I decided to stay in-state, but OSU has a really good agriculture department. There are several other schools in Oregon with agriculture programs too but I can't remember any others off the top of my head. You can message me if you have questions about OSU or schools in Washington. Food science isn't directly related to agriculture as you're talking about it, but I think I can give you a bit of insight into overall agricultural science departments.
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Chespirito
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Re: Going to school for agriculture [Re: libertaire]
#11470952 - 11/16/09 11:00 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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UC Davis, they even have a winemaking major which teaches you how to make wine and also design a vineyard and grow your grapes on it. For other schools I think maybe Berkeley has something similar, but probably isn't focused on farming like Davis. Purdue also I think
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Brainiac
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Re: Going to school for agriculture [Re: libertaire]
#11471153 - 11/16/09 11:31 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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NC state or A&T.....
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Compass
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Re: Going to school for agriculture [Re: libertaire]
#11471314 - 11/17/09 12:11 AM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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UC Davis has a strong, more traditional program in agronomy and agricultural sciences but it also has the more recent SARE (sustainable ag) UC Santa Cruz has a 25 acre organic farm and a competitive 6 month apprenticeship program during the summer growing season
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demiu5
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Re: Going to school for agriculture [Re: libertaire]
#11473601 - 11/17/09 12:47 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
libertaire said: Cool thanks for the info. I would be interested in the later, organic/sustainable for sure. I was also curious, what does it take to be accepted to an agriculture department? Would the fact that I've had above a 3.0 gpa for the past 4 years be enough, or would there be other stuff they would look at? I've only been accepted to college once, and that acceptance was based on a musical audition, so I'm not really sure how things work in other fields.
i went to a uni with a smaller department for my ag degree, compared to some of the names listed, so all i had to do was declare my major and file it. i'm not sure how larger, competitive programs work
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/edtr/EDTRCollegesI_L.shtml
http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/events/degree.htm
check those out
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libertaire
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Re: Going to school for agriculture [Re: demiu5]
#11474288 - 11/17/09 02:29 PM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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And what do you do with your degree now?
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demiu5
humans, lol


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Re: Going to school for agriculture [Re: libertaire]
#11477053 - 11/18/09 07:29 AM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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currently, nothing. i took a 6-month wwoof'ing internship in northern california from may-nov., and now i'm looking for a job, though there's nothing currently available in my field where i'm moving to. so i'm considering grad school for fall 2010/spring 2011.
i never had the intention of actually using my degree, i just needed the piece of paper.
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jewunit
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Re: Going to school for agriculture [Re: libertaire]
#11477669 - 11/18/09 10:27 AM (14 years, 2 months ago) |
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I don't much about it so maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I think Cornell has a pretty good program too. And it's a bit closer than the PNW to Jersey.
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