Im thinking of majoring in astronomy when i go to college.?

Question

What i basicallty want to know is how hard and what type of skills I would need if I was to go through with this?

Answer 1

Astronomy is one of the hardest undergraduate majors. You need almost as much math as mathematics majors, just as much physics as physics majors plus you need to take astronomy classes.

Not all schools offer astronomy as a separate major -- but so't let that stop you. At many schools, it is offered as a subfield of Physics.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Depends on what you want to do. If you want to be an astronomer, you're going to need a Ph.D. in astronomy or astrophysics or physics. You really can't do research without one, and research / teaching jobs are pretty much all there are for astronomers (unless you want to build/operate instrumentation, and then you might want an engineering degree instead).

If you do want to be an astronomer, you'll want to major in physics, with double majors / minors in math and astronomy. Yep, it's a lot of physics and math. You'll apply to grad programs in physics/astrophysics/astronomy, and spend 4-7 years in grad school learning how to do research and taking advanced physics and astronomy classes.

Then you'll spend 2-5 years in postdoctoral positions, where you concentrate on your research and building up your publications before going on to a full-fledged research or teaching position at a university, gov't lab, or NASA.

You'll need good math skills, critical thinking, logic, creativity, and writing skills - scientists have to publish a lot, so you'll need to be able to communicate clearly and in scientific language.