@twoinanddone Yeah but they don’t have any horticulture, agriculture, or any of such degrees, or at least none that I’ve seen.
FAMU - the A in A&M stands for agriculture
http://www.famu.edu/cesta/main
The school that you go to matters, but not as much as what you do when you attend (i.e. your involvement in research, leadership, internships, and other things you do besides just going to class). Make good grades and always be on the lookout for opportunities to engage and challenge yourself beyond the classroom
FAMU college of agri
http://www.famu.edu/cesta/main/
If you want to bioengineer foods, you need a bio background.
If you want to work in international NGOs, you need international relations courses under your belt.
You can also try global health.
ASU: https://wpcarey.asu.edu/undergraduate-degrees/global-agribusiness
Another route: https://transfer.asu.edu/agriculture
OP, you’re unnecessarily pigeonholing yourself. If you want to do international work, the bulk of it is working with NGOs or local governments- not doing things actually “in the field.” If you want to bioengineer food or anything along those lines, you need to look into biology.
If you want to work on the ground, you need language and cultural skills (“international” isn’t a place- Zimbabwe needs a different skill set than Sri Lanka.)
(By the way- 1 in 5 children in this country go hungry. So while you’re at undergrad, I hope you’ll work towards ending that as well.)
But really- I go back to thinking that most bio/biochem programs will give you the necessary background.
@romanigypsyeyes Thanks for the info. Btw I meant FSU has no horticulture program, lol I know all FAMU has to offer, I’ve just sent in my application for their 2018-2019 school year. Hopefully, I’ll get accepted. The problem with agribusiness is it deals more with money than I’d like to lend myself to. I am currently taking both General Biology and General Chemistry (two semesters for each class, 16 credits total) at the community college I’m dual enrolled with, so hopefully, that should cancel out some of my prerequisites, bio/biochem or not. I am currently taking my third Spanish class, so hopefully, I will be at least 60% fluent by the end of it. I guess that would send me to Central America, which would be an awesome experience. I do have one question though, which has pained me since day one of this college search. If there are so many workarounds for degrees and the actual careers you can do with them (i.e: using Chemistry or Chemical Engineering to get into Food Science or many other occupations) then why do colleges even offer more specific degrees, such as International Agriculture?
Many MANY colleges students also find careers in fields that aren’t identical to their undergrad college majors.
https://climatecenter.fsu.edu/topics/agricultural-forecasting
Look there.
Colleges offer specific degrees because there’s a demand for it. But that doesn’t mean that that’s the only way to a career. MOST people who go into whatever career do not major in something specifically for a chosen career path.
Plus, you can always go on to specialize in grad school- that is where you should specialize.
I think that you are trying to focus on something so narrow, to try to convince your parents that you can only do this at Cornell (this thinking will backfire on you). You need to broaden your scope as Cornell does not have an Undergraduate Horticulture Major.
If you are going to study Horticulture, you would do it as a grad student (after you finish your bachelors, and most likely to get into the grad program at Cornell, have some work experience under your belt).
https://hort.cals.cornell.edu/graduate
It sounds as if you would be major ing in Agronomy, not Agribusiness at FAMU.
FAMU also has international Academic programs
Your entire premise is flawed.
The University of Arizona is an in state school for you.
It will be as affordable as virtually any option you have.
It is the state Flagship University, a member of AAU, and a top research university.
It has an incredible history of extension work in this exact space
It has a “College of Agriculture & Life Sciences”
That College has a multitude of applicable majors, such as … “Sustainable Plant Systems: Environmental Horticulture”
The university houses the University of Arizona Campus Agricultural Center
Today I read a great article about work being done at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson. University researchers are studying the effects of various soil nutrients on the nutritional quality of pollen in the flowers.
If you are truly local to Arizona, I can not understand you asking the statement that includes “how are you going to learn how to grow veggies in the desert”. Do you know what the 5 Cs of Arizona are?
To be blunt, your scenario as presented does not add up. Focus on realistic options.
@DavidPuddy I am, with pride, truly NOT local to Arizona. I wasn’t born here but forced to move from a much better life (from an educational standpoint) here with my family. The people aren’t very friendly (for the most part, depends on where you go), the heat gets unbearable (it’s one thing to live in it, than to go visit it), and all three main Uni’s here (U of A, ASU, and NAU are kind of shady (I’ve been to all of them, for college visits and for other personal visits). I much prefer the East Coast than the West, so I am catching the college train back over to the side where I FEEL the grass is greener. This being said, I don’t seek to go to any of these Universities here for the aforementioned reasons, and due to the fact that my family has oppressed me since day one. I won’t go into detail on that matter, but I must go out and see the rest of the world! In all of this, I certainly hope I’m not mistaken for a whimsied brat who thinks he can go anywhere he pleases, without taking money into account, but I am rather a guy who knows what he wants to do, where he doesn’t want to stay, and what he can pay for (in terms of college), I just need help stringing all these lines together.
The colleges that will pay you the merit aid you need (regardless of the bad tenant, your family’s income and real estate mean that you will not get need-based aid), are NOT better academically than U of A. Do us all a favor and apply to your state flagship. It may be the best school that you can get into at a price you might be able to afford. Go east if and when you can afford to.
You literally have a lifetime to do that. Four years in college goes really quickly.
You’re not finding scholarships because there just aren’t that many. Universities provide the best aid.
Your stats, as of now, won’t garner much merit for the caliber of schools you want to attend.
Look, I get wanting to go out and save the world. I started my masters program (in public health) with the intention of working on reproductive health and justice issues in a non-US setting. Then reality hit me in the face and I learned that my skills were more useful elsewhere. But reproductive justice is woven throughout every strand of my work.
Frankly, one of the things you’ll learn very quickly when you start trying to work in international work is that there is less and less appetite for US aid in “developing” countries. They are producing their own scholars, biologists, engineers, etc.
What you want to do is to develop sustainable foods. Got it. You know where that’s done? In the lab. In labs. With a bio/biochem background.
But you have your mind set and I don’t really think any of us can help you. We’ve tried but you have rejected everything.
best of luck, @whenderson272 .
There are agriculture and horticulture degrees that aren’t called that. The U of Wisconsin Stevens Point has degrees in Water and Soil, which is farming. It is a nice school that doesn’t cost very much even if you are paying full OOS tuition. But it is going to be hard to travel to and it’s darn cold in the winter. Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas schools all serve states that are heavy on agriculture. Look at the WUE schools that are land grant colleges.
I knew a guy who graduated from U of Maryland with a degree in golf course management. Basically he learned how to grow grass. What does he do for a living? He manages a golf course and tries to grow grass for the 5 months of the year the course isn’t covered in snow.
My niece started with nutrition/dietetics degree. She was interested in food production and did a summer internship with farm/dairy program. She is now in her second year in FoodCorp (part of Americorp) managing school gardens, using nutrition/food based science lessons for schools, and working with Boys/Girls club program with big garden/chickens. For extra money she works at a goat dairy. At the end of the two years she will have around 14k to apply toward grad school where she wants to do ag education. A thought if you want to go to grad school.
Just another way to get from A to B although nutrition degree included organic chemistry which almost took her out!
OP: Did you do the NPC for Cornell? It won’t be enough, but you would get significant aid, if you could get in. It may not work bc of the rental house tho. At least you would know the starting point.
You can transfer from ASU after your second year…maybe finances will improve?
You sometimes cant put all the lines together. Sometimes there is no way to get there from where you are, and you must be prepared to accept that.
So, with that in mind, keep your mind and options open! Get that ACT score up a bit and you may have better luck with merit directly from the schools. Also, many schools have scholarships just for AA candidates, so look at their websites. Good luck!
@romanigypsyeyes Thanks. I really do appreciate the input! I will try to be more…humble…and well-versed when it comes to this whole college process. I WILL do you all a favor and apply to U of A, as it is probably the nicest of the three. That being said, I hope I am not taken as snide in saying this, but I was rejecting much of the help as of my own terms, but in part because in this post I asked for Scholarship information, not help with Financial Aid, but got in anyway!
Scholarships are financial aid, and the majority come from the colleges themselves. Many colleges will reduce the aid they offer by any outside scholarships you might get, so if your EFC is ~$30k that’s probably pretty close to what you’ll be expected to pay. Make sure you have financial safeties on your list.
You’re not getting any need-based FA from anywhere other than the tippy top schools.
Scholarships come from universities more than anywhere else. There just are not big scholarships out there that are realistic to get. There’s a myth that there’s thousands of dollars of scholarships that aren’t claimed each year. It’s not true.
You don’t need to be humble. You need to be open minded and flexible. There’s a difference.