Reddit reviews Topographic Laser Ranging and Scanning: Principles and Processing

Here's a bunch of resources for ya.

Start by checking out OpenTopography. They have data for free download as well as a great tools page:

https://opentopography.org/

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For free software I recommend checking out:

Cloud Compare https://www.danielgm.net/cc/

QTReader http://appliedimagery.com/download/qtreader-64-bit/

and Fusion http://forsys.cfr.washington.edu/FUSION/fusion_overview.html

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Also free for small datasets is Lastools. The creator, Martin Isenburg has an excellent blog as well.

https://rapidlasso.com/lastools/

https://rapidlasso.com/blog/

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If you know python or R there are some great packages:

laspy https://laspy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

lidR https://github.com/Jean-Romain/lidR

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For educational resources:

I've taken some good courses online with Penn State World Campus. I haven't taken their lidar one, but it looks pretty good.

https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog481/syllabus

There are lots of resources out there you don't have to pay for, and colleges are always a bit behind the industry. I see more programs popping up these days that teach not just GIS but focus more on remote sensing and geodesy. I would look for something with that kind of focus rather than your standard GIS program. Honestly, you can learn a lot about the work if you try out some mapping using a drone with a camera and then create a point cloud using structure from motion (aka phodar). Software like Pix4D, Agisoft Photoscan have free trials I think.

For lidar textbooks I recommend the one by Shan and Toth:

https://www.amazon.com/Topographic-Laser-Ranging-Scanning-Principles-ebook/dp/B009NZVX2W

Also, it's always a good idea to read up on and understand accuracy standards and file formats at some point:

https://www.asprs.org/a/society/committees/standards/Positional_Accuracy_Standards.pdf

https://www.asprs.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/LAS_1_4_r13.pdf

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For drone based lidar, the company to pay attention to these days is Phoenix LiDAR.

https://www.phoenixlidar.com/

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Hopefully gives you some of what you're looking for. Best of luck!