Where did you go to school?

Texas A&M Forestry

You have to be able to do the job to get top money as a climber, but a degree is great. It opens a lot of doors.

Plus, if you get tired of climbing for a living and want to pull down more $$$$$, you have options if you have a degree. If not, you are stuck where the tire meets the pavement.
 
Psychology degree, Missouri State
minor in Human Resource Management.
I'm here for you if you ever need me, Hollen. (har har.)

I wish I had known about arboriculture when I started college, 'cause I would have taken a completely different path. I took a job dragging brush for $7.00 an hour after I graduated and realized I would have to have my Masters to make any money in Psychology. What a lucky break to be hired by a good company that trained me well for this career.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Degree nice to have but the proof of the education is in the application.

Still studying; lots to learn.

[/ QUOTE ]

Absolutely agree with this sentiment.

I am pursuing an Urban Forestry Tech diploma from Univ of No. Dak and will also go for the Landscape Design diploma. All this because I wanted a more structured approach to studying for the BCMA exam.

Has the education been worth it (or is it)? You bet. Many times David is up a tree when a client comes out to ask questions. I am able to answer them knowledgably and with confidence, rather than saying that we better wait for him to come down and ask. (Which is what I did when first working with him.) People appreciate the whole team being informed professionals.

So they may not ask "where did you go to school"? But many times are pleasantly surprised at the depth of information they receive. This instills a confidence to refer your name to their friends.

Sylvia
 
[ QUOTE ]
schools have boat payments just like the rest of us so they try to sell their service, no matter how simple the subject, to us.

[/ QUOTE ]True, so it pays to look hard at what schools are selling. But with education, it's not just a service or commodity; to a large part you reap what you sow.

Surviving inot your 60's can't rely on physical stamina, and business sense alone will not get treeguys through the Depression we are sliding into. atached one view of this; pardon if dupe.
 

Attachments

Me, I never went to skool. Lots of continuing ed classes, ISA Cert, URI Master Gardener, RI Tree Steward Training, but no degree. On one hand I wish I went to school, but on the other, I wouldn't be where I am today. Every person finds a path that works for them; school was not part of my path. I still encourage young people to pursue higher ed, mixed with a little soul searching. I believe that this is a noble profession of ours, and I don't take it lightly; I continue to educate myself, and I always will.

-Tom
 
Ha! the first picture in your attachment was taken in Baltimore Maryland during TCI Expo student career days climbing comp which I participated in while I was a student at Mid State Technical College. Picture of my speed climb at same comp featured on cover of Tree Care Industry Magazine, Volume XIX, number 10 - October 2008. Go MSTC.

FWIW...the pic in your attachment features the speed climb tree (with another climber, not me), while the pic on Mag cover is me climbing that tree , yet superimposed against a backdrop of the Milwaukee skyline (and a totally diferent tree!) If you have that issue, you can see the rope, and Don Rapolo, floating above the grass...Kinda freaked me out when it came in the mail!
 
Hey, treehumper! Humber College here, too. Ian Bruce was very good to me, made leeway for the fact that I could not attend full-time, and lobbied the admin to allow me to take what I could piece-meal while I worked half-day and weekend shifts at a nonarb job to keep a roof overhead. That was over 15 years ago, still have a museum piece Buckingham buttstrap harness from those days, and of course a shelf of textbooks that have aged rather better.

Then I cobbled together enough credits through night classes at Humber and correspondence courses from Guelph University to nail down an Ontario Diploma in Horticulture. That at least got me grounded in general plant knowledge.

For the life of me I will never figure out those who look down on education. It is an investment in one's self, and struggle as I may have to piece together my modest diploma and my thread of certifications from here and there, I have yet to lay down my pencil or close a text on a course of study and feel I have mis-spent my time.

Northwind
 
Stockbridge School of Agriculture (at UMASS Amherst) studied turfgrass management, then to Essex County Aggie (now part of North Shore CC, Hawthorne MA) for horticulture. Got my tree training from a great company in Newton MA, who showed me the path of the MCA....
 
Associates in Horticulture -- U of MN
Decided my brain was stronger than my back.

Bachelors in Electronics Engineering -- Phoenix
Masters in Computer Sciences -- U of Texas, Dallas

Computer engineering is a field where one must constantly be training or be passed up by someone else who is. Got used to that for 15 or so years.

After a long period of unemployment I figured I'd get on with another career track I enjoyed. Re-training wasn't a matter of schooling but want and dedication to the subject, and access to Tom's library and guidance.

ISA Cert. took some rigor, studying like school for 3 months, without paying for for the lecture(r). The laboratory was there for the hiring.

I think the nearest BS offering for Urban Forestry would be Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, or A&M in College Station.
 
AAS Landscape Development
BT Plant Science Both from State University of New York at Cobleskill
Master in forestry (future) Cornell, Penn State
Learned a lot from a tree care firm in Needham, MA
Learning all about crane work here in Upstate NY
 
4.5 years at UW-Stevens Point, where I got my smarts. The years after that included various(some good, some bad) influences to get me where I am today.


A degree is more of a reflection on your work ethic, most of what you need to know comes on the job
 
So it's Holly, Giantslayer, Rocks y Trees, CrazyJimmy and I who do not hold a degree, but we posted here anyway.

Interesting that we responded to a post that really didn't include us to start (Where did you go to school implies that you actually went to school LOL). I wonder if folks that have a degree and apply it have the equal yet seemingly opposite feeling of folks who operate with industrial knowledge and no degree. Sorry, I got a bit existential there hahaha.

I recently taught myself another language (Spanish, w/no prior classes, age 37), so I believe that we can never stop learning if we have the desire within.

-Tom
 
Never been to school either. My wife has her masters and me doing tree work brings home the bacon. I have considered school but my wife wants her doctorate now. Looks like I am staying up in the trees for a while.
 
Schools:

Nicolet Area Technical College
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
University of Massachusetts

It is not so much the school as the teacher, and I have been very, very, fortunate to have been taught by some of the best.

Dr's:

Shigo
Miller
Ball
Coder
Marx
Schabel
Gilman
Matheck
Volbreck
Smith
Donzelli

Others:

Olson
Petersen
Blair
Palmer
Philips
Noonan
Tompkins
Ard
Shepard
Roppolo
Chisholm
Hall
Hendrickson
Hall
Dunlap
Hoffman
Neustaeter
Longstaff
Toss
Hudson
Wulkowicz

Not a complete list of the folks that have made me a better arborist, these are just the ones that I came up with off of the top of my head. My apologies for any one I missed, I mean no offense, just getting old.

Knowledge is good, Wisdom is better.

It is not so much the degree as what you are able to do with it.

Do I need all of the degrees that I have to be an arborist? No? Did earning them make me a better arborist? Yes.
 
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