So I’m currently a junior studying at the University of Montana. I wanted to go out-of-state but ultimately chose to stay in-state because it was cheaper for me and my parents. It was okay at first because I was undecided on a major and most of my friends from high school went there as well. However, now I see that it was probably a bad decision. The major I want to study isn’t offered here, Fermentation Sciences, and I haven’t made any new friends because I just hang out with my high school friends who go here. I’m studying Parks, Tourism, and Recreation Management so that I can go to graduate school and get a degree in Viticulture and Enology to enter the beer, wine, and spirits industry and also Digital Arts and Technologies so that if I don’t get into graduate school then I can work in social media or graphic design for a brewery or winery. I guess I’m just wondering if anyone knows if my degree options would work for graduate school or if it is too late to transfer as a junior or any tips to help me out? Thanks.
Look at transfer possibilities for wue. I believe Sonoma State has an excellent wine-related program and is in we, check into it.
Most colleges require that students attend their college for 2 full years so transferring as a junior may delay your graduation. Check carefully.
Cornell has a viticulture program through Cornell CALS. https://grapesandwine.cals.cornell.edu/
UC Davis has a huge viticulture major. With Napa being so close to the campus, they have their own buildings there.
http://wineserver.ucdavis.edu
Check it out.
If you could not afford out of state before, has your financial situation improved? Are you able to pay for grad school? It’s not too late to change if you can afford to do so, though as others have said you may take more than 4 years to graduate.
Read the websites of grad schools you are interested in to see what courses are required and recommended preparation. The UC Davis website linked above has clear requirements for both transfer and graduate applications,
I think worrying about “what am I going to do with my life and am I making the right choices” is pretty normal for juniors and seniors. Take extra time to talk to professors, career services, and other advising when you get back from winter break. Everybody has options, but it takes time and effort to find them. Getting into the spirits industry as a digital media designer is very different from brewing which is different from managing factory tours. Have you done any internships yet? What do you want to do with your days?
There are several state schools in California with programs in viticulture/fermentation, including UC Davis, Cal Poly, Fresno State, and Sonoma State. There are probably similar programs at public schools in other states. The obvious problem here is that you will have to pay out-of-state tuition at any public school outside of Montana, and this will be much more expensive than your current in-state rate.
I would check out Washington State University Tri-Cities. This is not the main WSU campus in Pullman, it’s a smaller campus in Richland. The advantage is that they participate in the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) program; this means that they offer significant discounts on their normal out-of-state tuition rate to residents of other Western states (including Montana). See:
https://tricities.wsu.edu/admissions/academic-achievement-award/
http://wue.wiche.edu/profile.jsp?id=236
Typically only the smaller and less well-known state schools participate in the WUE program. The California schools listed above don’t participate in WUE. As far as I know, the only school with a viticulture or fermentation program that offers WUE rates to transfers is WSU Tri-Cities. Their WUE tuition rate will probably still be higher than your current in-state rate, but it will probably be more affordable than the out-of-state rates at other schools.
You could also check the main WSU campus in Pullman, they have viticulture, but it looks to me like they only offer the WUE rate to out-of-state freshmen (not transfers).
Fermentation Sciences is a very very specific major. Fortunately, the University of Montana offers both chemistry and microbiology which many brewmaster job postings seem to ask for. If you do want to study that discipline, MSU-Billings Extension offers a [Certificate in Craft Brewing and Fermentation](http://www.msubillings.edu/extendedcampus/craft_brew_certificate.htm) for only $3450 for the entire program. Have you worked in the industry yet? Missoula has a disproportionate number of microbreweries as well as a vineyard and a few distilleries. At least one of those would likely happily hire a college student looking to learn more about the industry, especially if you’re over 21.
Then it sounds like you need to extend your friend circle. What clubs are you a member of? What do you do to meet more people?
I agree with the last two posts. If you are a junior who has completed your first semester of junior year, it’s a little too late to transfer. You wouldn’t be able to transfer until Fall 2017 at the earliest, and if you do, you’d basically have to sacrifice 30 of your credits since most places won’t let you transfer in more than 60 credits.
It’s better to shoot for maybe studying this at the graduate level, or getting a certificate in it once you are finished with college. You will need the biology and chemistry classes, so make sure that you take those to prepare.
Most of the colleges that offer winemaking courses also offer them online. UC-Davis’s Extension school has an online Winemaking Certificate Program - it’s 5 quarter-long, 10-week courses that are taught online. Oregon State University also offers a much cheaper certificate called “Online Vines”. Washington State University offers a 1.5 year long online Viticulture and Enology Certificate program through its extension school. You could complete these either now while you are in undergrad or later after you graduate.
Also keep in mind that there are lots of kinds of jobs at breweries and wineries. They need business managers and sales reps, too. Another kind of job are environmental scientists and ecologists.
As for the friends - that’s more up to you. If you want to make new friends, you can.
The guy that owns and runs a very successful brew pub in our neighborhood has a chemistry degree, so I’d agree with the others who recommend you switch to that major and stay put.
The social stuff can be fixed by making different choices.
As for digital art in that field, they hired me to design their logo, and I’m a fine artist who knows nothing about beer, so I wouldn’t assume that other beer/winery companies would use an in house digital artist. They’d just farm it out like most companies.
A digital art degree is a 180 from a science degree, also.