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Minh
Student
Breese, Illinois
1
Question
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What can I do with an Astrophysics dilopma?
I am interested in becoming an astrophysicist, however I do not know what kind of job I can do. #astronomy #astrophysics
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Marina Dunn
Undergraduate Research Assistant at Steward Observatory Radio Astronomy Laboratory
2
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Tucson, Arizona
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Marina’s Answer
Hi Minh,
There is definitely a large variety of careers you can have in Astronomy. First of all, most places require at the very minimum a Bachelors degree in Astronomy or Physics, and most institutions also want you to have a PhD in order to be a professor, senior scientist, etc. There are 3 sort of main paths you can take: 1) You can go into academia, where you go to graduate school, do a post-doc position, and then usually become a professor. THis is what most astronomers do. 2) You can go into business/private industry (which usually requires a PhD). 3) You can also work at a national observatory or government laboratory. It really depends on what specific area of astronomy or physics you want to study and where the jobs are at the time. Undergraduates studies are a really good way to get a taste of astronomy and do research and decide what you like, and then it usually becomes more apparent what types of things you want in a job. There are also many resources to help you decide. I suggest just talking to people at different institutions about there experiences and see if it's something that sounds appealing to you. It's a very difficult subject, but it is absolutely worth it in the end. Check out more tips at https://aas.org/learn/careers-astronomy. Hope this helps!
There is definitely a large variety of careers you can have in Astronomy. First of all, most places require at the very minimum a Bachelors degree in Astronomy or Physics, and most institutions also want you to have a PhD in order to be a professor, senior scientist, etc. There are 3 sort of main paths you can take: 1) You can go into academia, where you go to graduate school, do a post-doc position, and then usually become a professor. THis is what most astronomers do. 2) You can go into business/private industry (which usually requires a PhD). 3) You can also work at a national observatory or government laboratory. It really depends on what specific area of astronomy or physics you want to study and where the jobs are at the time. Undergraduates studies are a really good way to get a taste of astronomy and do research and decide what you like, and then it usually becomes more apparent what types of things you want in a job. There are also many resources to help you decide. I suggest just talking to people at different institutions about there experiences and see if it's something that sounds appealing to you. It's a very difficult subject, but it is absolutely worth it in the end. Check out more tips at https://aas.org/learn/careers-astronomy. Hope this helps!