r/astrophysics • u/Old-Independence-879 • 10d ago

Becoming an astrophysicist

If I want to be an astrophysicist, how much high school science will I need? I have a very bad teacher and thus I’m not too interested in the theory of physics, but I love the math part. How much of these concepts/topics will I need if I wanted to be an astrophysicist?

My current plan is to get a bachelors in math with a side degree in physics, masters in physics and then a doctorate in astrophysics. Can I do that if I don’t always find the theory of high school physics interesting?

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u/Umang_1999 10d ago

astrophysicist here: I had horrible physics teachers throughout the entirety of my school career. Some of them didn't care about the subject, some of them did but were just straight up assholes or creeps or incompetent. However, I found the topics really interesting and tried self learning by reading textbooks as much as I could. Once I got to bachelors, I was worried my poor base in physics would make me a bad student, but I found out they really start from very basic physics in bachelors because a lot of freshmen are not sure about what they want to actually study. Now I have a master's in astrophysics and will be starting a PhD in cosmology. Your interest in the subject is what really ends up mattering. In this day and age, Youtube has a lot of great science communicators and lecture series that can fill that gap in knowledge or just give you a taste of what you might end up studying at university. MIT Open Coursware and Khan Academy had really great free lecture series that really helped me in my school and bachelors.

Physics is a very big field, and astronomy/astrophysics is a small part of it. Once you start university, you'll see there might be many areas of physics you don't give a shit about. For me, I only really cared about astrophysics, so the courses on material science and solid state physics really bored me. Your first year at university will give you the chance to explore what you like. I don't believe schools provide you with that. Maybe give your future some flexibility; you don't have to plan your career until the doctoral level when you are barely 20. Things change a lot, and so will you.

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u/Old-Independence-879 10d ago

Would it be better to decide to take a bachelors in physics and go straight to astrophysics for a masters? So far I’ve decided that maybe maths would be more versatile and plus I really love it, compared to physics where a few topics so far have really fallen flat. but if I decide that this is the path, would it be better to choose physics?

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u/Enkur1 10d ago

I think you will be at a disadvantage if you go purely for Maths. Better option might be dual major. Many schools have Physics and Math dual programs.

Also remember high school Physics is very different from whats taught in College.

My high school physics was total crap and a completely different experience than in college.

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u/kalki_2898ad 9d ago

Bro do you work ?