If you’re choosing a graduate school for an elite liberal arts program or a rigorous mathematics program, your top choices could be spread out around the country — urban, rural, or anywhere in between — because abstract academic thought can thrive almost anywhere.
But when it comes to picking a school with the intention of studying a practical degree, like those related to the land, agriculture, and natural resources, location is key to gaining an applicable education.
But how do you decide what programs require you to choose a university based on location, and more importantly, how do you decide on which university will give you the best education for the practical field you’re pursuing?
Handling real problems having to do with animal nutrition, plant science, or water management in real, practical places can help students become highly skilled in their field of study. As the world population grows and irresponsible human consumption has many worried about sustainability, there are ample opportunities in agricultural and resource related fields. But faculty and graduate students need to be located in areas that allow for their specialized research to solve local problems before they can extend their solutions to the world’s pressing challenges. And being located near specific watersheds, forests, and animal life enables a unique opportunity to combine classroom learning with practical application.
At West Virginia University, there are several fields of study that fit well with the environmental and geographical nature of the Appalachian area. Here are three of those programs — along with questions to help you consider the importance of location and examples of regional industries stemming from these programs — in order to help you decide if West Virginia is the right area for you to pursue your advanced degree.
1. Agronomy
Questions to Consider: Is the school part of an active agricultural community to offer opportunities for hands-on experience beyond the classroom? Does it have a 'learning farm' or a laboratory setting with enough acres of land to provide experience working with crops? Do the professors have expertise in the kinds of crop physiology, plant breeding, or forage sciences that interest you? Will they support your career goals, whether in research, management, academia, or consulting?
The best agricultural practices vary widely from region to region based on differences in climate, soil, insect life, local weed species, and many other factors. As such, the unique challenges of farming in the Appalachian region can only be met by studying animals and crop life within the area.
For example, since the mountain regions of this area have been used as mining country for so long, one area of focus is mine soil reclamation and mine drainage geochemistry. We need to deal with metal contaminated soils and surface waters.
West Virginia University professors are currently conducting research with the help of graduate students in the following areas:
- Nutrient cycling and soil organic matter in grassland and organic farming agroecosystems
- Methods of crop livestock production under organic management
- Weed management in horticultural systems
- Ecology and nutritional value of forage plants and cultivated grasslands
- Plant-animal interactions in sustainable forage-livestock systems, with an emphasis on pastures
- Using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) for analysis of pasture botanical composition and forage nutritional value to ruminants
- Biodegradation of hydrocarbons and pesticides
- Microbial production of atmospheric gases
- Sulfate and iron reduction in freshwater wetland sediments
- Microbiology of wetlands used to treat domestic waste
Depending on what kind of research expertise grad students gain, their careers may go in several directions. If a grad student’s area of focus is on plant science, they might find opportunities to innovate solutions for growing populations and climate change as plant geneticists, plant pathologists, and insect biologists. These scientists develop methods to growing crops with higher-yield despite growing conditions that aren’t ideal.
Or, if a student is interested in animal and human nutrition, finding work as a food scientist in new product development, food processing, and food safety would be applicable. There’s a growing demand for research and development programs connected with feed and animal-health companies, and the consumer demand for nutritious and safe food also drives these fields.
2. Wood Science and Technology
Questions to Consider: Is the school located within a thriving forest region? Does it have lumber or carpentry facilities? If you’re interested in seeking solutions to current problems in renewable materials science, is this school committed to sustainability? Does it offer the chance to work with the community’s forest industry to conserve local forest resources effectively?
Since humans require basic building materials, furniture, paper, and packaging, wood continues to be one of our most important renewable and energy efficient resources. Engineered wood products, woody biomass utilization and bioenergy have advanced recently such that wood products and related industries employ an estimated 10.6 million people nationwide.
Certainly, students studying wood science ought to be located in a forest region. The Appalachian forest region is an incredibly rich area for studying and harvesting wood products. The Appalachian Hardwood Center at West Virginia University provides technical and research support for the state's growing wood products industry, creating a place for all kinds of forest work: outreach; extension and technology transfer; professional development; and applied research. This allows graduate students in wood science to interact with sustainable natural resource-based businesses and communities as well as private forest landowners and natural resource professionals in the region.
These interactions can lead to job opportunities after graduation. Some might work in forestry, buying timber and planning harvesting operations in accordance with sound forest management and environmental practices. Others will end up in business administration, in charge of wood product manufacturing, marketing, distribution, and end use. Or they could be process engineers for companies that manufacture furniture, cabinets, and state-of-the-art engineered wood products.
3. Recreation Parks and Tourism Resources
Questions to Consider: What kind of national or state parks are near this school? Is there any cultural or historical heritage that needs preservation? Does the program involve any partnership with eco-tourism or rangers in the area? Does the school give students research and managerial positions in local community recreation and nonprofit leisure services, commercial and private enterprises, or parks and natural resources management agencies?
A recreation and tourism program such as this one focuses on human interactions with natural resources. The mountains, forests, streams, and national parks of the Central Appalachian highlands provide the perfect living laboratory for teaching, service, and research programs. Students learn to understand how human and organizational values, perceptions, attitudes, and behavior shape and are shaped by recreation, tourism, and natural resource management systems.
Graduate students may conduct research alongside professors interested in the human dimension, and here are some examples:
- Understanding behavior, motivations, and satisfaction levels in outdoor recreational settings
- Studying cross-cultural aspects of leisure and tourism
- Analyzing social and biophysical indicators based on human-nature relationships
- Examining environmental attitudes and behavior
- Considering how people use, perceive, and benefit from regional areas
They might work on research focused on policy and planning: recreation and tourism partnerships, citizen participation in natural resource planning, multi-party collaboration, conflict management; sustainable tourism development.
Or they might be most interested by the technical aspect to recreation and tourism: ecotourism destination evaluation, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in tourism planning and management, public resource land management, and agricultural tourism.
As transportation becomes more accessible to people around the country and the world, travel and ecotourism are booming industries. Graduates can use their expertise working with tourism companies or communities that host many tourists. They can work as policy-makers, sustainable tourism developers, resource managers, nature tourism rangers, eco-lodge managers, or protected areas communications officers.
Consider Location When Researching Environment-Related Graduate Programs
Deciding where to pursue your advanced degree based on a location that will help you most in your future professional ventures can be a confusing process. But if you’re considering one of the three degrees outlined here, take the time to research the natural environment surrounding the university you’re considering. Doing so could give you a competitive edge and help you to jumpstart the practical application of your field of study upon graduation.
