Advising Corner

Welcome to Purdue’s Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture! You'll find this to be a place of wonder, opportunity, fun, and challenge. In this advising corner, we offer a wide range of resources for you to succeed in your professional and personal experience at Purdue.

HLA Advising - Prospective, Transfer, and CODO Students

Meet our HLA Ambassadors!

Future freshmen apply using the Common Application. Apply to Purdue

Departmental Items

College Items

  • Scholarship Applications and Important Dates – College of Agriculture and Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture scholarships. The HLA Department uses the College of Agriculture scholarship application and deadline for selecting departmental scholarships.
  • Book a Custom Visit to tour the College of Agriculture and meet with staff member(s) in your area(s) of interest.

University Items

 Contact: HLA Student Success Specialist

You must have 12 completed credit hours of college-level coursework (taken after high school) before you can apply as a transfer student. Apply to Purdue.

Departmental Items

College Items

  • Transfer to Purdue Agriculture - Great resource for all transfer students regardless of your Ag major choice. You will find information on Common Transfer Institutions, Purdue Ag Core – Transfer Courses, Transfer Stages, Pathway to Purdue Agriculture, and Transfer Agreements.
  • Pathway to Purdue – A partnership between Purdue University College of Agriculture and Ivy Tech Community College-Lafayette.
  • Scholarship Applications and Important Dates – College of Agriculture and Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture scholarships. The HLA Department uses the College of Agriculture scholarship application and deadline for selecting departmental scholarships.
  • Book a Custom Visit to tour the College of Agriculture and meet with staff member(s) in your area(s) of interest.

 University Items

  • University Transfer Credit Guidelines
    • Transfer Credit Overview
    • Submitting Official Transcripts
    • Check How Your Credit from Prior Learning May Transfer
    • Credit Through Testing (AP, IB, A-Level and More)
    • Indiana Public Colleges – Statewide Transfer Initiatives and Core Curriculum
  • Transfer student Deadline and Important Dates

Contact: HLA Student Success Specialist

Students wanting to CODO to one of the majors in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture should contact the HLA Student Services Coordinator to set-up a meeting to discuss majors in HLA. If the student decides they want to make the change, they should then meet with their current academic advisor to discuss their options and begin the online process. Once the student’s Major Change (CODO) has been processed, students will receive an email with instructions to authorize the change.

Students will need to meet the criteria for the major they are seeking to be eligible for this major. A student’s catalog term, typically the semester you started at Purdue, will be used to determine the Major Change criteria that applies to you. Students can find their catalog term at the top of their MyPurduePlan below the degree progress bar.

This major change information below is for the catalog term you are currently viewing; see the University Undergraduate Academic Advising Major Change (CODO) website for prior catalog term criteria, more about the major change process and FAQs.

Contact: HLA Student Success Specialist

HLA Advising - Current Students

With undergraduate mentoring in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, students have the opportunity to build relationships with their peers, instructors, and mentors to capitalize on their overall experiences and community at Purdue. To achieve this, every HORT, TURF, or SFS undergraduate student must have an annual mentoring appointment by the starting semester of the student's sophomore/second year in HLA. It is strongly recommended the student identify a mentor who works in the student's area of interest/s. Students often look to faculty and specialists for guidance on career exploration and ways to maximize their time at Purdue. Mentoring can best serve our students and department by faculty and specialist sharing their expertise in the many different HLA fields. The mentoring appointment can be with any HLA faculty or specialist-affiliated mentor on the Faculty Research page. The mentoring meeting can occur at the potential mentor and student’s availability during the academic year.

Instructions for STUDENTs:

  • Email the mentor of interest on the Faculty Research page.
  • Be courteous and professional when contacting, check out this article on Email Etiquette.
  • Once you have confirmed your mentor send them a copy of your most recent resume (copy HLA Academic Advisor.
  • Complete the following online form at least 48 hours before the meeting.

Instructions for Mentors:

  • Receive the students' survey responses after you all have agreed on a meeting time.
  • Meet with the student mentee to support and guide professional development in their major of interest.
  • After meeting with the student, complete this online form (the advisor will be notified once the form is completed, noting the annual requirement as completed)

Learn more about the benefits of HLA's Mentoring requirements: Undergraduate Mentoring Flyer

Each of our majors has a professional component fulfilled by a specific number of hours through an internship or professional work experience. Find your major to learn more about how to complete the requirement.

Landscape Architecture

Professional LA has a whole co-op year integrated into their 4 + 1 program.

Co-Op Information

 

Horticulture

320 research work, internship, and/or work experience hours.

Horticulture: Public Horticulture

Description of Internship Requirements

800 internship and/or work experience hours. Internship description should be approved by the program lead, Prof. Paul Siciliano (siciliano@purdue.edu), before pursuing the internship or completing the internship form.

Turf Management

320 research work, internship, and/or work experience hours.

Sustainable Farming Systems (SFS)

320 research work, internship, and/or work experience hours.

Submit your Research/internship/work experience hours for verification

The impact of Purdue Agriculture reaches all over the globe. Our graduates are being placed in Indiana, nationally and internationally. 

An honors contract is an agreement between an undergraduate student and a faculty instructor that allows the student to turn a standard course into an honors course. 

In general, honors contracts allow the student to go beyond the material of the regular course and to produce more sophisticated work. A student may, for example, delve more deeply into methodology, structure, theory, or application; perform additional or alternative research; develop a service project; or present findings in some format.

Honors Contract Courses and Form

College of Agriculture Degree Requirements

Each plan of study must include 3 credits of economics, 3 credits of University Curriculum Council (UCC) approved humanities selection, plus 9 credits of additional humanities and social science selectives (approved by the Agriculture Curriculum and Student Relations Committee) of which at least 3 credits must be at the 30000 level or higher. Of these 15 credits, at least nine must be from outside the College of Agriculture.

 

Humanities/Social Science Selectives

All undergraduate plans of study must include a minimum of nine credits from the international understanding selectives list on this page, or equivalent study abroad programs, international travel courses, or international work experiences. Six credits are required in programs of study leading to the Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering or Bachelor of Science in Biological Engineering degree.

International understanding selective credits may be used to fulfill written and oral communication, social sciences and humanities, or departmental requirements.

 

International Unde​rstanding Selectives

All undergraduate plans of study must include a multicultural awareness course. Students must broaden their awareness of the United States domestic, multicultural environment. The objective of the multicultural awareness component of the core curriculum is to stimulate students to become aware of self and others to be better prepared for the workplace and participatory citizenship. Students are encouraged to explore coursework outside their own culture.

 

Multicultural Awareness Selectives

In a capstone experience, students will be challenged to integrate their accumulated knowledge, and technical and social skills in order to identify and solve a problem relevant to issues encountered by professionals in their chosen discipline, and to communicate the results of their efforts to their peers. In doing so, students will have the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to adapt to professional situations. It is hoped that this experience will stimulate students' appreciation of the need for lifelong learning and initiate professional and personal liaisons.

 

Capstone Course or Experience

What is HLA?

Our Past Students' Experiences

Our Research

Student in Hoop House at Purdue Student Farm