Well, I figure that since I graduated from Oklahoma State with a BS in landscape contracting, you might be interested in what I have to say, so here's my two cents:
I started out as a turf management major. I then decided to change my major to landscape architecture. Somehow, in one of my design classes, I rubbed a professor the wrong way. The professor's name was Tim Schmoll. I don't think I'll ever forget him. It was his first day teaching our design class, a small class of about seven or eight students. Well, anyway, he was writing something on the chalk board and I took the liberty of pointing out a mistake I thought he had made. After closer scrutiny, it was I who had made a mistake and the professor was right. I must have really been an azz about it, because I don't think he liked the criticism. Outside of that, I don't think the guy had any reason to dislike me. Well, as you can imagine, the grading in a design class is very judgemental. To make a long story short, I failed that course...the only course I ever failed at Oklahoma State. I'll never forget the time I pulled an all nighter that fall in the design lab with all of my class mates, the whole time wondering where my fraternity brother was. He comes rushing in at 8:00am after a night at Joe's. Our presentations are due at 9:30. His drawings look like a child with crayons next to ours. He got a B and I got a D. Oh well, life isn't fair.
That design class, if memory serves correct, was one of four and it was all that separated the Landscape Contracting majors from the Landscape Architecture majors. All the other class requirements were identical. So I was pretty much forced into the LC major by failing that design class.
I guess my point of telling you all this is, I basically have a degree in landscape architecture. All the classes the LA's took, I took, with the exception of the three design classes I didn't take. That's all that separates them from me.
When I was there, there seemed to be a lot of bickering over who's responsibility the landscape design belonged to. The architects thought they could do it, and obviously, that was stepping on the toes of the landscape architects. But the whole problem is, every building project gets handed off to an architectural firm, not a landscape firm. If the architects think they're capable of designing the landscape, who do you think designs them? My understanding is that most architectural firms don't have landscape architects on staff, nor do they hand them off to landscape architectural firms. Typically the architects layout the landscape and turn it over to landscape contractors who select suitable plants. It doesn't always work this way, but it works this way more often than not.
As for the education, it's a university education. It's not a technical school. When I graduated, I designed not one, but TWO landscapes in FIVE YEARS that included plants. And even if I had taken those other three LA Design courses, they did not include plant materials in the designs either. 99% of what we did was just fairytale schit. No budgets. Not even plants. Just design the layout of the parking lots and decide where the trees, shrubs, grass, water features and sidewalks will go, but don't bother selecting specific plant materials. And don't bother trying to figure pump sizes for water features. Don't bother with budgets. Don't bother trying to bid anything. Don't bother even trying to guess how many man hours an installation will require or what the price of the materials will be. Just draw a pretty picture. The prettier the picture, the better the grade. I probably spent less than 2 hours of total class time on irrigation in five years. Probably less than 3 hours on retaining walls. But we did spend at least 1/3 of an entire semester learning how to design streets, roads and highways...something that is ALWAYS done by civil engineering firms. We memorized a lot of common/latin names of plants as well as identification. The hort classes were good stuff. 90%+ of the usefull stuff was in the hort classes, but there were only like three of those for the LC or LA majors. The LA & LC classes were a joke, if you ask me.
If you want to own your own business, I would say the money would be better spent elsewhere. If you think you'll need to be an employee at some point in your life, our society places a great deal of value on education. I still can't figure out why it's that way, but it's that way.
Later,
DFW Area Landscaper