Grad Schools I'm Looking At
Aug. 12th, 2010 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forestofglorySo lets nix the the whole question of whether grad school is a good idea and talk about programs I'm looking at.
Background stuff: So I'm fairly sure I want to study sustainable food systems. It combines my love of ecology and conservation with my enjoyment of feeding people and my desire to fix the world. It is just not right that some people are hungry while others have so much. I think I can help fix it.
Urban Planning: I'm not really looking at specific schools (well maybe UC Berkeley) just trying to figure out if planning is a good way to study food systems. Just at this moment I don't think I want to do planning. Planning is fun and I enjoy playing with some planning problems but in the end planning is focused on the urban form and I want to think about at a bigger scope.
Enviromental Science Policy and Mangement at UC Berkeley Enviromental science/studies is kinda the obvious next thing for someone like me with a degree in Ecology, but I'm not very excited by what's going on in the department. There is one guy who does Argoecology and not much else related to issues I what to study.
Geography at UC Berkeley This is the program at UCB I'm most excited about. There aren't really more food people in the department. There is Richard Walker who wrote a book about Agricultural History in California. (My brief review here) Another professor does rangeland ecology (He's the one I had a meeting with). Also a PhD student with an Awesome Project. However I'm really taken with their approach -- context context and more context. And I could take classes in all types of other departments and that would be normal. One issue is that the only have PhD program and rarely accept people without masters degrees.
Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz There are a bunch of agriculture people at Santa Cruz -- I'm still trying plan a trip down there to meet professors. I think that could be fun.
Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State I'm really excited by how big this program is. They really have a lot of people working on food stuff -- mostly Ag based but also people looking at social stuff.
Iowa is logistically tricky though. My parents are prejudiced against the mid-west and hate the idea, but my main worry about it is health care for Robert. He is diabetic so the whole pre-existing condition stuff applies to him. He has health care now -- but if he moved it could be a problem. Plus the winters are cold. Brrrr.
I might also look at UC Davis and Stanford because they are nearby -- and I'm on the look out for schools with good food related programs.
Anyways I'd love to get more input. Turning it around and around in my head is making me lose perspective.
Background stuff: So I'm fairly sure I want to study sustainable food systems. It combines my love of ecology and conservation with my enjoyment of feeding people and my desire to fix the world. It is just not right that some people are hungry while others have so much. I think I can help fix it.
Urban Planning: I'm not really looking at specific schools (well maybe UC Berkeley) just trying to figure out if planning is a good way to study food systems. Just at this moment I don't think I want to do planning. Planning is fun and I enjoy playing with some planning problems but in the end planning is focused on the urban form and I want to think about at a bigger scope.
Enviromental Science Policy and Mangement at UC Berkeley Enviromental science/studies is kinda the obvious next thing for someone like me with a degree in Ecology, but I'm not very excited by what's going on in the department. There is one guy who does Argoecology and not much else related to issues I what to study.
Geography at UC Berkeley This is the program at UCB I'm most excited about. There aren't really more food people in the department. There is Richard Walker who wrote a book about Agricultural History in California. (My brief review here) Another professor does rangeland ecology (He's the one I had a meeting with). Also a PhD student with an Awesome Project. However I'm really taken with their approach -- context context and more context. And I could take classes in all types of other departments and that would be normal. One issue is that the only have PhD program and rarely accept people without masters degrees.
Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz There are a bunch of agriculture people at Santa Cruz -- I'm still trying plan a trip down there to meet professors. I think that could be fun.
Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State I'm really excited by how big this program is. They really have a lot of people working on food stuff -- mostly Ag based but also people looking at social stuff.
Iowa is logistically tricky though. My parents are prejudiced against the mid-west and hate the idea, but my main worry about it is health care for Robert. He is diabetic so the whole pre-existing condition stuff applies to him. He has health care now -- but if he moved it could be a problem. Plus the winters are cold. Brrrr.
I might also look at UC Davis and Stanford because they are nearby -- and I'm on the look out for schools with good food related programs.
Anyways I'd love to get more input. Turning it around and around in my head is making me lose perspective.
