Can I pay in bushels of corn?

Early on in my search for a graduate program my wife and I had that discussion that every couple has about continuing education -- what's it going to cost us?

She's just finished up her second degree and is getting ready to re-enter the workforce. I've been working for several years, making my way up the ladder. But bills are bills and there's no such thing as a free education, right?

Indeed. My tuition for the MAB program will should be a total of $22,000 (books included) plus whatever extra costs I accumulate in travel, housing and my elective course during the second year. All in all, it's pretty affordable compared to other programs, especially when you look at business programs.

I'm fortunate that my employer will reimburse me 50% of the tuition and 100% of books and fees. I just have to promise I won't take my degree and skip town for a new gig. They see it as an investment and I see it as a perk.

According to an article on HR Management, 75% of all companies with more than twenty employees and almost all large employers offer some type of reimbursement benefit. Companies are spending anywhere from $16 billion to $55 billion for employee development.

I'll be curious to see how many of my classmates are benefiting from this type of opportunity. For a professional program like MAB, I'd think an employer's nuts not to chip in if possible.

A future in agribusiness.

One of the things that bodes well for having an advanced degree in agribusiness is the number of job opportunities available.

I'm not job hunting, but if I were, I think it wouldn't be too hard to find employment in any agri-industry right now.

I was fishing around on AgCareers.com in search of some stats on the employment outlook for the industry. They do a comprehensive report each year, but I'm too cheap to buy the data. Plus, as I don't work in human resources, I don't know what I do with it all once I was done reading.

Regardless, here are a few interesting tid-bits they share free-of-charge on the site:

• Greater than 95% of companies experienced an increase in salaries of greater than 2.1% in the last twelve months
• More than 30% of agribusinesses experienced employee turnover greater than 20%
• 74.4% of companies estimate they will have 1 to 5% of employees expected to retire in the next 2 years

If you do work in H.R., or if you're not as cheap as me, you can buy all of the 2007 data here for $295.

In the beginning.

I eluded to the fact that we (the Class of 2010) start the program in just over two weeks with a six-day campus session. From what I have gathered so far, we'll use the time to learn some basic concepts for getting off the academic launch pad.

Courses in the first session include Computer Decision Tools for Agribusiness, Agribusiness Financial Management and Applied Agribusiness Logistics. We'll be working in these courses until March. It amounts to seven graduate credit hours, and I suspect it will move quite rapidly.

It's honestly a bit intimidating. But I've been assured that other students have felt the same way and still managed to earn their MAB degree in the end.

With full sanity in-tact?

I guess we'll wait and see.

All the little things.

I am just a few weeks (actually more like two and a half) from beginning the MAB program at K-State. And the program does kick-off at the campus in Manhattan, with six days of coursework, orientation and I suspect socialization as well.

Preparing for this session has required a lot of little things.

Making sure my $500 deposit was paid on time.
Getting travel arrangements and hotel accommodations squared away.
Setting up my K-State e-mail account.
Confirming this laptop is setup with the right software for my classes.
Filling out the new student survey.
Refreshing my brain on the ins-and-outs of Microsoft Excel.

They're important tasks that didn't take much time, but will certainly make my campus trip go more smoothly.

One degree. Five years. And a letter.

That's how I ended up enrolling in the Master of Agribusiness program at Kansas State University. At least that's the abridged version. Take good notes as you read the rest; there just might be a quiz at the end.

With a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Communications from the Univ. of Illinois, I set out for a career in journalism, working as a farm reporter for a couple of local and not-so-local media companies.

The work was great. I got to travel, met a lot of industry professionals and spent time between large urban centers of politics and industry and vast, unpopulated rural townships. And I really found my place as a communicator and professional. But life and it's changes brought me back to my home state of Illinois in an organizational communications role -- working for a well-known non-profit, Illinois Farm Bureau.

Married with one wife and no kids, I was thinking I'd like to sink my teeth a little more into the business of agriculture. My grasp of communications theory and its practical applications was sufficient, but there certainly could be more meat-and-potatoes in my knowledge base on agribusiness.

And so the hunt for graduate studies ensued.

Is it an MBA I desire? No. Too stuffy. Not enough talk about corn, dirt and cows.

How about advanced studies in general agriculture? Not my cup of biotechnologically improved tea.

So where can I find a fair blending of the two concepts? Well, according to an advertisement on www.AgCareers.com, at Kansas State Univ.

One brochure, and a few phone call and e-mails later I was applying to the MAB program and waiting for word on an admissions decision.

Turns out that I was soon to be a Wildcat, by way of distance learning. Via e-mail (and a follow-up confirmation letter from the Graduate School) I got the A-OK from the Department of Agriculture Economics for enrollment as part of the Class of 2010.

And thus, here we begin.