This university of yours have a forestry program? Go talk to someone in the program and get some more info and direction. You may be able to take a couple of classes on climbing and basic arboriculture, woody plant ID, horticulture, etc to help improve the 'book smarts' or at least find out who might be a good mentor to work under to learn some of the basic stuff and, yes, the aforementioned is all 'basic' stuff that any tree-care person should learn. You can't know how or when to prune a tree if you can't properly identify it and understand its biology.
Also, remember, tree care is a business and not just a blue-collar trade that anyone can just jump into and be successfull by way of ambition alone. If you want to succeed, you should know a little something about running a business so a basic course in business management wouldn't hurt either. How to run a business is difficult to teach yourself unless you learn the hard way by making a lot of mistakes. Such mistakes can cost a lot of money. If you're wanting to minimize your initial start-up costs, talking with others and learning about wise business management decisions will help you to make the right decisions and help prevent costly mistakes (like good advertising vs bad and sound capital investments vs shaky ones).
Finally, no better way to learn the skills than to get hands-on training from someone who is both skillfull and ETHICAL in the trade. Skill is just one part of arboriculture. Ethics (doing what is in the best interest of your client, his property and his trees) is something that a lot of folks in this trade are lacking and it's what gives this trade a black eye. I think that's where a lot of guys in this forum come off offended by so many 'newbies' wanting to come into the trade without the proper training or background. New guys come in and hack up trees for a quick cheap buck and make experienced arborists look bad and seem overpriced compared to the new guy's low prices. We don't need any more of that. Believe it or not, ethics will make you more money in the long run than just low-balling jobs to get as much work as possible.
This trade needs energetic young folks like yourself but only ones that have the skills and knowledge to be ethical and professional. You've got the drive, now get the skills before you take the leap to run your own business. Trust me - I jumped into running my own business straight out of college with both arboriculture and landscape architecture degrees. Even with degrees in the field, I didn't have enough field experience to be ready to run my own business. After 25 years, i feel pretty capable today but I really regret not having worked for a reputable arboricultural firm prior to starting my own business. SO SO MUCH that I had to learn the hard way including business management, sales and ethics. The only thing (or person) that saved me was having John Ball, professor of forestry at South Dakota State University, as a mentor both in school and all throughout my business career. What an incredible resource he has been to me in both learning the trade and in making sound business decisions. Find a 'John Ball' in your area and you'll do alright.
I agree with everyone who suggested finding a mentor to work under. Just make sure he or she is a
reputable mentor! Ask around. My 2 cents. Good luck and welcome to an unbelievably tough yet incredibly satisfying trade.
