I was planning on majoring in Astrophysics in college with a PhD, but the college I was planning on attending does not offer astrophysics as a major. However, they offer physics as a major and have astrophysics as a minor. Is it the same?
I am asking this question because it will ultimately determine my future. I was planning on majoring in astrophysics because I find the subject matter simply fascinating. The reason why I have my heart set on this particular college is because I was planning on obtaining a double major, a bachelors in robotics engineering and a PhD in astrophysics. I've been told that with PhD's you have a main area of focus that becomes the essence of your degree, but I'm not sure about the validity of that. Please help. #physics #double-major #astrophysics #science-phd
1 answer
Aleksandr’s Answer
Hi Braden, I'm a bit confused by your question, but I will try to unpack it. Is it that you want to go to the same school to get your bachelor's and PhD? Then I recommend you major in physics or robotics with a minor in astrophysics. But, realize that you can minor in other domains as well. I would see what skills are necessary to be a good astrophysicists (e.g. specific math, statistics, computer programming, etc) and consider minoring in that. Once you get into your PhD program, you will have general classes on physics/astrophysics for example, but then your research will be on a very specific area within that. You can not however do your bachelor's degree and PhD degree at the same time, which I was confused by your question.
Hope that helps.