Since you live in the Ohio River Valley, take a trip N to Columbus and talk to the folks in the Hort. Dept. and Ag. Dept.

sometimes the same degree has a different focus from one university to the next; call the universities you're interested in and talk to their department heads, or maybe their admissions department. they should be able to offer you clear career paths based on their programs. some places the plant breeding could have an agriculture bent, and some places it could be ornamental. botany I'd expect to be broad and well-rounded. you'd get specific skill sets with plant breeding that could have you working for private companies or state/federal department of ag.

Remember that professors also need students. They tend to paint a rosie picture of great professions. Many have gone from student to teacher without ever leaving academia. Sometimes it is because teaching is the best job in the profession.

Horticulture and botany are very difficult professions. Lots of people have a passion for it, but there are not a lot of good paying jobs.

Think about where money enters the world of horticulture. It is largely through sales of plants. The less you have to do with the final transaction, the less likely you are to be making good money. It takes lots of people to water, care for, propagate, dig, move, and plant and not so many to do genetic research.

Go to a big nursery and you'll find a lot of degrees on the walls. If you look harder, you'll meet the people those degrees belong to. Look at the employee parking lot. Look at what they are doing and who they are working with. Look to see if they look like they are having a good time.

It is easy to assume an image of a profession that is what we hope it to be. It is often a lot harder to find that image in reality.

I was once upon a time a botany hopeful like you when I was 18. My father said be smart and get something sensible like an accounting degree but I had this romantic image in my head that I would be traveling the world like 'MacGyver.'

The reality of it was the building where the botany department was housed was a dirty, 100 plus year building that was shared with the chemistry department which was badly in need of a new roof, it leaked every time it rained. Now, that kind of tells you the some funding (or lack of) it had.

Now the business department on the other hand was housed in a brand new building all tricked out with the best of everything from grateful alumni with deep pockets. And this was at one of the big ten schools.

It was not a romantic major, I was told that with a botany degree in hand I would probably spend my days bent over a microscope in a lab somewhere if I was lucky enough to get a job in the first place. So I ended up changing majors junior year and finishing with a different degree.

Later on I took a 2 year horticulture degree from a junior college. Fortunately I had so many credits already that I was able to finish in only 2 semesters. It was a lot cheaper and more practical. And they were by no means in a category that I would term as well to do.

But as Laag mentions, there still weren't alot of good paying job opportunities. The only folks making pretty good money seemed to be those who owned (not worked for) design/build firms. But they were by no means exactly well to do either but just making a respectable living instead of eeking by on minimum wage.