Horticulture - Academic Outreach - Continuing Education - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Program Profile

Chicago Bachelor's Degree Completion Program in Horticulture

Program Description:

The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES), in partnership with the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (ACES) and the Office of Continuing Education (OCE), now offers an innovative bachelor’s degree completion program in horticulture for working professionals and community college students in the Chicago area. If you have thought about getting your bachelor’s degree in order to advance your career opportunities, or are changing careers and want a second bachelor’s degree, this may be the program for you!

With a direct economic impact of $4.72 billion in 2003, the Illinois ‘green industries’ are growing rapidly and 25% of the service sector industries report that they are unable to fill all of their open jobs. U of I horticulture courses will prepare you for a career in the “green industry” and our on-campus faculty and well-qualified adjunct faculty will teach these courses at locations convenient to you in the Chicago area. Get hands on experience at the Chicago Botanic Garden, The Morton Arboretum, and the Multi-University Center in Oak Brook.

The horticulture curriculum requirements are identical to the on-campus program, ensuring you the same quality and rigor that Urbana campus students receive. You will take your final 70 credit hours of coursework to earn your bachelor’s degree in horticulture, building upon your community college coursework. Some courses may be offered online in conjunction with the off-campus M.S. degree in NRES, however, the B.S. in Horticulture is mainly a site-based degree program in the greater Chicagoland area.

Potential career opportunities in the horticulture field can include work in the areas of Arboriculture, Arboretum Management, Environmental Communications, Conservatism, Cooperative Extension, Ecology, Environmental Consulting, Environmental Education, Forest Management, Forestry, Horticulture, Landscaping, Landscape Design, Nurseries and Greenhouse Management, Plant Nutrition, Soil Science, Sustainable Development, Urban Ecology, Urban Forestry, and Turf Management.

Delivery Method:
Face-to-face/Videoconferencing
Online
Self-paced/Asynchronous

Classes offered on:
Nights
Weekends
Daytime
Self-paced

Credit options for courses within the program:
Degree seeking (admitted to a degree program)
Non-degree seeking (students not admitted to a degree program at the time of the course)
Non-credit/Audit

Number of Required Campus Visits: No required visits other than meeting with an advisor or occasionally for course meetings.

Enrollment Type:
Cohort (students take online semester-based courses as a group)
Open Enrollment (enroll anytime)

Total Number of Credit Hours: 70 hours of UIUC credit see http://www.nres.uiuc.edu/uploads/files/undergraduate/ChicagoHortCurriculum.pdf

Tuition/Program Costs: $327 per undergraduate credit hour.

Admission Requirement(s): All transfer students will be required to fulfill ACES transfer requirements noted in the ACES Student Handbook[PDF]. Transfer students will be eligible for admission if they have:

* At least 60 semester hours of transferable credit, completed by the term of enrollment.
* Completed the following specific courses prior to transfer; Chemistry I with a lab, Chemistry II with a lab, and Finite Math.
* A minimum GPA of 2.5 on a 4.0 scale.
* For those students completing three or more years of the same foreign language in high school, no additional foreign language is required. Students that have not completed three or more years of the same foreign language in high school must complete the second level (Spanish 101 and 102, for example) prior to transfer. Note: The third level (Spanish 103, for example) is required for graduation."

Application Deadline: none—applications accepted at any time.

Departmental Program Website: http://www.nres.uiuc.edu/Dynamic.aspx?PageId=145

Program Contact(s):

Piper Hodson
NRES Student Services Coordinator
Phone: 800-252-1360 x 45761

Greg Pierceall Professor and Program Advisor
Chicago Horticulture Program Coordinator
Phone: (630) 990-0740

Heather A. Miller
Office of Continuing Education
Outreach Program Coordinator—College of ACES programs
Phone: (217)-265-6568