He graduated in 2011 from Junípero Serra High School in Gardena, California, and entered the NFL draft after his redshirt junior year at USC.

[2] He has been featured as Sports Illustrated′s "High School Player of the Week" in October 2010,[3] and participated in the 2010 U.S. Army All-American Bowl.

At Junípero Serra High School, Farmer was a teammate of Colorado wideout and future Seahawks teammate Paul Richardson and San Jose Spartan cornerback Bené Benwikere as well as former USC Trojan wideouts Robert Woods and Marqise Lee.

[6] Despite only grabbing 30 catches for 363 yards with four touchdowns in an injury-plagued USC Trojan career, Farmer decided to enter the 2015 NFL draft after his junior year.

With several suitors, the Cowboys gave him a $15,000 signing bonus and a guaranteed cash payment of $55,000 for the season, to outbid other National Football League teams.