Astronomy as major/career

[Loki]

I am a senior in high school. And that means that I will soon have to choose a college to go to and a major along with it. Astronomy lies at the heart of all my scientific interest and I would love to make a living of it. But is it a good idea? I know there are career books out there that give you the average salary and stuff about a career, but I'm not going to base the rest of my life off of a few paragraphs I read in a 1500 page book.

 

So what do you guys say? Should I "risk" majoring in astronomy (or physics), or should I safeguard the rest of my life with engineering?

[fafalone]

Safeguard it with a degree in physics.

[blike]

Go where your passion is. It is wise to have a backup plan though, or at least something else to fall back on. I'd assume that a student with a BSc only in Astronomy would end up an assistant somewhere at best (could be wrong). I assume you plan on going to graduate school as well.

 

What part of astronomy do you enjoy?...astrophysics or more just general astronomy..

[Loki]

Yeah, I plan on going to graduate school.

 

As far as what part of astronomy I enjoy--my passion is too broad and undevoloped right now to say. EVERYTHING about astronomy interests me. If I had the choice, I would probably pick Astronomy as a major over Astrophysics. But I still don't know. I WANT to pursue my interest, but I have to know how "dangerous" this career path is. After all, I have interests in physics, chemistry, and engineering, and I'd be happy to go down one of those paths if it means a safer career...

[uscphysics]

One of the Professors here (Uof South Carolina) has a degree in Astrophysics and does nothing but run the Astronomy department and research in strictly Astronomy fields. The Astrophysics helps if for some reason you could not get a job right out of school in Astronomy because the physics background gained could allow you to work in other fields than strictly your major.

[Loki]

To me, it sounds like risky business when it comes to this field. I understand everything about pursuing my dreams, and doing what makes me happy. But I'd also be happy with a solid, stable career in--say--physics or engineering. unfortunately, it seems like the best way to figure out whether an astronomy career will be a stable one or not would be to, well, be an astronomer. =P

[Neurocomp2003]

There is one thing you could do....a minor in astrophysics/astronomy...thats what i did.

If your heart truly lies in this area as mine did but you don't know

whether you can see yourself pursuing such a career as of yet

the minor would be your best bet.

 

THe most important thing to note is if you just wanna be an

observer or actually work in the research fields-> astrochemistry,

astrophysics,astrobiology, radioastronomy.

 

If you just wanna be an observer then i suggest the minor or just develop it as a hobbie. I've heard that sitting at a telescope

on ends can make you abit crazy. Now if you wanna be a researcher then do it as a major. Or as a minor with a related

field.

 

If your looking into engineering->aeronautics will keep you close to astronomy as will space "??" i can't remmeber the name. But if your into computers, try simulations(computer science/science blend), computer simulations are very important to alot of fields

and this way you can still focus on astronomy but also have the

backup of progrmaming

[booper54]

I was also thinking about this sort of career, being a senior in high school as well. And yes, I am more of the observer kind of person, but I am really into computers.

 

Neurocomp 2003: are you talking about like simulations of various things in space....like stars or new discoveries?