OT: Question about physics/astrophysics majors now that the season is over

Physics is a really math-heavy major.  Not sure about astronomy though.

Generally, if you want to go to grad school for a quantative major, you have to be pretty good at math.

If he's at all practically focused, engineering might be a better way to move forward than a purely scientific major. I really liked physics and cars, and that pointed me at mechanical engineering. Of the best "bang for the buck" 4 year degrees, engineering majors dominate the lists.

I'm actually a HAIL (Hometown alumni interview link) participant through the college of engineering at U of M and would be happy to discuss engineering with your son. My screen name is my twitter, you could get ahold of me that way.

That said, I had a friend do Aero engineering and there was a LOT of math involved either way. For ME we had to do  through Calc 4 plus an advanced math course.

...repost next Tuesday. Thank you. EDIT: Did I miss something? Did Alabama and Clemson play? Did the the Army All-American Game take place, did the final college football rankings come out? Season is not over...all you physics and asto-physics majors are too serious. :)

"A Higgs boson goes into a church and the priest says, ‘We don’t allow Higgs bosons here.’ And the Higgs boson says, ‘But without me there is no mass.'”

The answer is always "dark matter."

I'm no expert in this field but any level of astronomy above the hobby level is going to wade pretty heavily into mathematics and physics, and the term is often considered synonymous with "astrophysics."

If I were interested in making a living with space, I would pursue engineering as my focus with astrophysics-track stuff as my "elective hobby" and use engineering skills to make a living at a place like NASA or SpaceX. 

I am not sure, but off the top of my head I think pure research and NASA are his path's forward after graduation.

Obviously, that can then branch into many different fields if he's particularly smart. I am a computer science/chemical engineeering major and I work with people in all sorts of different disciplines.

What!? Not a rampant speculation Najee thread!? The nerve.
/s

At the graduate level, many schools have their physics and astrophysics students taking the same courses (significant amount of overlap for your standard topics such as electrodynamics, quantum/statistical/classic mechanics).  Strong math skills are a definite plus (calculus heavy) but nothing overwhelming.

On a practical note, having a degree in astronomy/astrophyics almost guarantees the job prospects being limited to acadamia or some form of subsidized institution (large telescope facilities, planetariums, NASA, etc.) - with those opportunities being few and far beween.

Also, this is a niche specialization with some of the highest rated programs being at small schools.  I know that Northern Arizona and Univerisity of Toledo are both good for astrophysics, despite being smaller schools in general.  Most of the larger schools have a program, but it may not be rated highly.  Due diligence is a must for finding the right grad school in this type of field.

I wasn't a physics major (geology), but took several physics classes and am friends with a couple that went on to grad school in astronomy. PrincetonBlue is right that physics is very math-heavy, but many don't realize that astronomy is as well. Core astronomy classes are basically physics applied towards astronomy topics (different light wavelengths, etc.).

One of the downsides of astronomy is that there aren't many options without a grad degree, and really just a PhD. However, one of the other downsides is that, at least a few years ago, there were many more job-seekers than openings; this includes academia but also government positions. One person I know with a PhD in planetary geology from Notre Dame ended up returning to her undergrad institution to teach adjunct classes until she could find a better position.

Michigan Physics major and Caltech Physics PhD here.

 

Physics degree -- very math centered, must love math

Astronomy - very similar to physics degree

 

Career options with physics/astronomy PhD

- academia (very hard to get a professor position, postdoc easy to get but doesn't pay well)

- national lab (slightly less hard)

- Industry (research)

 

Physics/astronomy PhD grads from top universities will easily have several industry job offers in the low 6 figures. I currently work for the Center for Naval Analyses in Washington DC. 

Here's a partial list of good astronomy schools, off the top of my head: Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Texas, Cal-Berkeley, Cal Tech, Hawaii, U. Chicago.  Hopkins was always strong because the Space Telescope Science Institute was across the street; Princeton has a lot of good people in the department plus the Institute for Advanced Study in town; Cal Tech, Berkeley, and Hawaii have great telescope access.  I think one of the New Mexico schools also has a solid department.  

I don't think that you necessarily have to be a huge math whiz for astronomy specifically, but it helps quite a bit in certain areas, like general relativity and curvature of spacetime, for example.  It is definitely a calculus-heavy discipline.  There are plenty of physics and math requirements for the astronomy degree at Michigan; basically the introductory calc sequence (Calc I, II, and III, then Ordinary DifEq) plus one more class (probably either vector calc or Partial DifEq).  If you're already majoring in physics, though, adding astronomy as a major only means about 5 or 6 additional classes total, so doubling up isn't all that difficult.

 

I majored in physics at a medium size public liberal arts school that was not highly ranked.  My original intent was to be a high school physics teacher (teaching is certainly one of the job prospects).  I think physics is a great foundation for almost any future career that requires quantitative analysis, that being said your son will likely need to go on to grad school to specialize in whatever area interests him for the long term.  That may be a continuation of physics or it may go elsewhere.

For myself, after my undergraduate degree I caught the physics bug and did the Applied Physics PhD at Michigan and eventually found myself in the biomedical realm as an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine (I now describe myself as a biomedical engineer and do research in ultrasound at a university).  I never would have imagined myself having that title as a high school student, so I think it is anecdotal support that your son can go on to do almost anything with a physics degree.

If your son really wants to stay in the 'astro' realm, then the comment above that academia, NASA, or a similar research institution is probably going to be the main way forward.  If the interest is more broadly space, then there are a number of job opportunities in the private sector (think SpaceX or satallite manufacturers).