texas111 said:
This was a very poorly written article whose author didn't really know what they were talking about. However, their point had some validity to it. Kind of like a blind squirrel finding an acorn every once in a while.
If you get a degree with the word agriculture in it, you are limiting yourself to getting a job in one general industry. People with degrees with the word agriculture in them have some limitatations in getting jobs that don't exist with other degrees. For example, if you get a degree in agricultural engineering, you are going to have a hard time getting a job with a general engineering firm that engages in civil/mechanical/etc engineering for other industries. However, companies like John Deere probably hire more people with mechanical engineering degrees than agricultural engineering degrees. It is much worse for degrees like marketing/business/etc. If you know you can get a job for an agriculture-related company, go for it. If not, you are much better off with a degree in general marketing or business. Take all the ag classes you want as a minor, etc, but get the general degree. Right or wronng, a company that sells high technology equipment, etc. isn't going to hire an agricultural marketing major.
There are just some unfair stigmas to degrees with the word ag in them. We might know the difference, but the rest of the world doesn't. I would argue that you can better serve the ag industry by learning how other industries work - which you can do by getting degrees that put some emphasis in those areas.
For those of you that do work in agriculture, how much of your business did you learn in school versus practical hands-on learning from your parents, etc? That is one of the really unique things about ag - you can learn some important things in college - but most of it you have to learn in the real world.
Regardless, I consider many of the liberal arts-related degrees to be infinitely less useful (sociology, philosophy, PE, etc). Colleges do kids a strong disservice by letting them transfer into those degree programs when something else proves "too hard" or has "too much math".
