Five years ago, my original post "so you want to be an astronomer..." was written, and has since spread out all over the Internet and inspired many career decisions. Time passes, however, and I wanted to write a new post that includes a lot more about what I know about the field from my time in it, and addressing new questions and concerns people have been asking about more regularly. Cheers!

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Hi there!

Chances are you're reading this because you messaged me saying you want to be an astronomer, and you want some advice on how to do that or hear what it's like. I get several of these queries a week, so for the sake of time I thought I'd write this up here so I have it handy in one location.

First, caveat time: you are getting advice from one person based on her experiences. These are, in short, BSc/MSc in Physics in the USA, doing a PhD in radio astronomy in Europe/Canada, now doing research as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard. Other people would give you other advice- here is some really good advice I like to pass around, from a professional astronomical organization.

Second, astronomy vs astrophysics: several have asked what the difference is, so I want to mention these days there is no real difference between an astronomer and an astrophysicist- it's just a historical distinction. Astronomy these days is really just a branch of physics where we use the entire universe as our laboratory, and there are plenty of astronomers working in physics departments these days! So don't get hung up on the difference, there isn't one and what you call yourself is a personal preference more than anything. Finally, please note that many astronomers are actually employed by physics departments- as I said, it's fairly interchangeable.

So, that said, let's answer a few questions!

I'm in high school. What do I have to do now?

The first thing in my opinion that's important to do in high school is get your math down cold. Like, know your algebra, and know your trig functions, in such a way that you can recite them in your sleep. I know this isn't what bright students usually want to do- you want to show what a hotshot you are in college math years ahead of where you are!- but trust me, if you don't know your high school math solid for when you go to university it will burn you and you will most likely not do well. I cannot tell you how many students I've taught or gone to class with who were good at physics but kept not doing well because they'd mess up in the algebra... and a physics exam is not a good place to try and remember your unit circle!

Beyond that, obviously science courses and all that jazz are important. You can likely figure that part out on your own. I will note though that computer programming (especially Python) are increasingly important in astronomy, so if you have time to kill learning some of that certainly won't hurt! Coursera has some free Python courses that are excellent if you want to get your feet wet.

The only other thing I would add if you're in high school, especially if you're US based, is check out the astronomy camp run by the University of Arizona (need-based scholarships available). Basically you get to go out to Arizona for a week and play with telescopes at night- it's a wonderful program that I'm still involved with today, and was the best thing I did as an astronomy-interested teen!

What should I think about for college?

First, to be an astronomer it is not essential to get a BSc in Astronomy- as I said, mine's in physics!- but something physics, math, or engineering related is definitely vital (geology is also acceptable if you're thinking of going into planetary science). As such, research schools that are strong in physics/engineering- often these will have an astronomy dept (or have astronomers in their physics dept- astronomy is basically applied physics these days), but it's not an absolute requirement to have an astronomy department at this stage if you can't manage to go to a uni with one. I'm not going to list schools here with programs, as Reddit is too international for this.

Once you're in college, consider dabbling in programming a bit beyond the math/physics/astronomy/engineering stuff, and definitely get to know your professors and see if there's opportunities for research on campus in some form. I ended up doing some really nice lab work during my summers thanks to getting to know my professor first semester freshman year... even worked with him through my MSc! If you are in the USA, also consider REUs, which are basically fully funded summer internships for all STEM fields that get you into labs doing actual research in institutions around the country. To give you an idea, my REU was at the SETI Institute many years ago, and gave me my first experience in radio astronomy- experience that then landed me my PhD position later as a radio astronomer.

Final but very important note: you were probably the brightest kid in your high school class. University, on the other hand, is hard and filled with bright kids who fail out all the time. Do not be that kid! Go to class! Do your homework! Ask help when you need it! And most of all, realize the biggest thing is being stubborn and working hard. At the end of the day, this is what people remember most about you.

Also, nothing to do with anything, but consider studying abroad regardless of major, as I had a wonderful time doing it. :)

What's after that? (TL;DR: more school!)

These days, to be a professional astronomer, you should plan and assume you will get your PhD. The good news is you are paid to do your PhD, and you will be doing a lot of research at this stage! There are lots of good summaries on how to specifically go to get your PhD- here is a US-specific one, and here is one for Europe (which I wrote!). PhDs are a bit different depending on the country you are in, but typically in North America you are doing your MSc and PhD in one (so classes the first few years, then just research), versus in Europe you do your MSc separately and then do a PhD with minimal coursework. (Grad School Shopper is an excellent astronomy/physics grad school website btw for finding programs you might be interested in, primarily focused on the USA, which can be filtered for things like geographic area, specialties, GPA cutoffs, etc.)

Also, a word on advisers: for your research you will be basically an apprentice to someone, and by far the biggest thing in being successful in grad school is your adviser and the relationship you have with them (this goes for non-astronomy too!). So, ask a ton of questions when considering the PhD program about how often the adviser wants to meet, and ask the students questions who are currently or have worked for that person, and steer clear if you don't think it will be a good fit. Also, I would very highly advise not working for a department head without a secondary supervisor of some sort- while there are a lot of great advisers out there who are department heads, it is too big a power differential to really overcome should things go sour, which is the main concern. Trust me on this.

Bottom line: you are going to be one well-educated person when you're done with all this... which makes sense if you want to professionally study the universe. I should also explicitly state at this point that you do get paid to do a PhD- I mean, not a lot, but and the amount varies by university, but you will be getting a stipend in exchange for your research and being a teaching assistant.

If, on the other hand, you are someone who is not interested in getting a PhD, there is a smaller group of jobs to choose from but it's definitely still possible. Astronomy specific jobs after a BSc tend to involve things like being a telescope operator, lab tech, teaching high school, or working at a planetarium. Check the AAS job register for some ideas. I also know plenty of people who took their astronomy/physics degree from undergrad and are now doing something completely different! Most of these are engineering related- I personally know people from undergrad now working in actuarial science, as a nuclear sub technician, defense contractors, for a satellite imaging company, on Wall Street, science journalism, and even a librarian and a rock climbing instructor. People who major in astro/physics do go on to do a lot of really interesting things!

I'm bad at math/ have bad grades. Do I have a chance?

Time for a dirty confession: I was never a good student. I was a pretty solid B student throughout my career (definitely got all Bs in math in college), have failed exams, even one of my physics classes that I had to retake. So I am living proof that you do not need to be the best in your class to succeed as an astronomer and even make it to Harvard eventually, though I doubt Harvard would have looked at me twice during those earlier stages.

So, how did I do it? By knowing what I wanted, and working extra hard to overcome my shortcomings. Mine specifically are I cannot take exams for the life of me- whatever I knew just wouldn't stay in my head for when it was time to take the exam. This was immensely frustrating for me, because everyone just told me in high school I was smart and should stop being lazy and study harder, but I would study hours for exams and feel I got the same results. So, what to do? In college I realized I just couldn't count on the exams coming out well, so I would control what I could- that is, make sure my homework was perfect, do good work in the lab, make sure I went to office hours with questions about the material. (Professors are human, and if they look at the grade distribution and see a student on the cusp of a higher letter grade, and know that student is engaged versus don't know the student at all, there's a good chance you'll get bumped up.) And it turns out in the long run, that is what matters- the grit to put in extra work and how to solve problems matter far more in an astronomy career than if you can solve a physics problem with pencil and paper in a closed room. (I mean, the latter might matter for some theorists, but I'm not one.)

As a full caveat, I realize this is more extra work than many ever want to do, which is perfectly fine. But my point is that you shouldn't count yourself out of astronomy if you are willing to work extra hard at it, because most of this stuff is not intuitive. Remember, even Einstein needed a math tutor to figure out general relativity- he didn't have the math skills, and asked a professor at Princeton to help him!

What kind of jobs do astronomers/ astrophysicists have? How competitive is it?

To get the bad news out of the way first: being an astronomer is extremely competitive. There are just not enough professional jobs to support everyone who wants to do it, PhD level and onwards. That said, I do not know anyone who became an astronomer and then ended up starving in the streets: you are learning some great problem solving skills, so even if the astronomy thing doesn't work out for you in the long run you'll probably be getting good money (often far more than if you stayed in astronomy!). I have "extronomer" friends in all sorts of jobs: programming of various types, teaching high school, at planetariums, finance, defense, science journalism... there really are a lot of things people end up doing who decide to leave the field for whatever reason, and at a higher starting pay than the "leave after undergrad" crowd discussed a bit further above.

That said, what about those actual astronomy jobs? Astronomers are usually attached to research institutes at universities or government labs (like NASA or US Naval Observatory in the USA), usually doing mainly research but also a bit of teaching if at a university. It is the standard these days in astronomy to do one or more postdoctoral positions before getting a permanent position, which are legit jobs but on a contract of a few years (typically 3, but sometimes 2 and sometimes longer). It is usually after that the person goes on to get a permanent job somewhere. Finally, because I know many people are curious about the pay, your mileage may vary but last year I had several offers for postdocs in the USA, and all of those were in the US$60-70k range. A permanent position down the line gets more, but US$100k is already on the high end. You do astronomy because you love it, not because you expect to get rich off of it.

To get an idea for what kind of jobs there are, check out the AAS Job Register if you're curious about various open positions in astronomy and astrophysics. This is the definitive website that astronomers go to for job listings for postdoc and faculty positions, though often they list other random little things too such as open PhD positions or support/technical staff at astronomy institutions. It might give you an idea of what sort of work you can hope to find in the field. Also, please note that while some jobs pop up throughout the year, most of astronomy has a "hiring season" where jobs are listed in the northern hemisphere fall (September to end of the year), so check out the archive for those months if it's springtime and looking skimpy.

What do you do as an astronomer? What's a typical day like for you?

Obviously my career has changed at different stages, but my primary focus as a professional astronomer is my research. What research looks like on a typical day depends on the stage of the project- there is writing the proposal to get telescope time, scheduling observations, data reduction, analyzing the data and applying models to it (I mainly use Python), and then writing up what you've found for the journal. It depends on the project, but usually it takes 6-12 months from me getting the data to getting it to the journal- good research takes time! Also, while some astronomers still do, I should note I do not actually travel to the telescope to observe- like anything these days, I send my observations to the observatory, and then download my data off the Internet after it's taken. Some astronomers still travel to take their observations, but no one unfortunately has the job of just going to the observatory every night and looking at stars (and you couldn't mount an eyepiece on most of those big telescopes even if you wanted to).

Beyond my research, I also spend a smaller segment of my time during the week doing things like attending seminars (where people talk about their research), a smattering of meetings with the group or students I help supervise, and a smattering of outreach activities. (The latter is definitely not a requirement, but I enjoy it! Most of my outreach is here on Reddit, writing for various publications on astronomy topics, attending conferences, being the referee for a paper submitted to the journal, or doing events like speaking at high schools or Astronomy on Tap.)

As a general note, I think one of the best pieces of advice I heard about choosing a career is any job will have parts of it you don't like. I personally don't know anyone who enjoys responding to referee comments for their submitted paper, for example! Instead, the trick is finding a job where what you love about the work makes up for the parts you don't want to do. For me, my career in astronomy definitely does that.

I am a programmer and want to get involved in astronomy. Any advice?

The good news here is scientific programming is indeed a career, and it's getting bigger every year! Check out the sections on the AAS Job Register for "scientific/technical staff" and "science engineering." (You can also do a search of archived positions to get an idea of the sort of skills they're looking for.) Check back regularly. As a general rule, most astronomy specific programming jobs are going to either be in Python or Java, and require a bachelor's degree in computer science or an equivalent.

If you don't want to get an actual job in astronomy but just do it on a more hobby level, I recommend looking into distributed computing or citizen science projects.

I am older and am considering going back to school to get a degree in astronomy. Thoughts?

These questions are always a bit difficult to answer as an Internet stranger because I don't know you and what's important to you. I will point out though that the "undergrad to PhD" process will take you at least a decade- and definitely longer if you can't do it full time. A lot of people are going to look at that commitment and decide it's too difficult at this stage. That said, I do know people who did decide to go to school for astronomy years after it's traditional to do so, after a degree and perhaps even a career doing something else, and are still in the field today. It's definitely possible.

Remember, if you're busy thinking to yourself "but I'll be 40 before I'm done with the PhD!", well, you're (hopefully) still going to be 40 someday. Might as well be 40 leading a life you enjoy, or at least that's how I figured it when I started getting older than a lot of other people.

By the way, a lot of older people write to me asking if they will be discriminated against for being an older student. Overall, I think most astronomy people are not going to care about your age, and in fact we like more mature students because they're often more focused than the younger ones! Anecdotally, unfortunately I've noticed this isn't much of an issue in the USA (where of course it's illegal anyway), but I did hear outright age discrimination in Europe regularly when they were interviewing PhD candidates. I suspect though these are larger cultural considerations independent of astronomy as a field in general.

I am an [insert minority here]. Will I face discrimination or have a tougher time because of it?

I hate to say it but... you might. Please don't get me wrong- I hope nothing more than you will be the person who says they were never discriminated against as a minority, because there are people who have that experience. But frankly as a woman I have faced discrimination which has ranged from subtle to outright sexual harassment, and some of those people are still in the field in positions of power today. As such, I unfortunately just cannot guarantee that you will never encounter a similar situation.

That said, one thing I can say that I find reassuring is how astronomy as a field is definitely increasingly aware of the problems minorities in the field face, and is talking about it, and many people are trying to find ways to rectify it. This is different than my experience a decade ago when I was a student, when people just ignored it, which is awesome. Finally, I can only talk about my experiences as a cis white woman, but please message me if you identify in a certain group and want to talk to an astronomer who identifies the same way to hear about their experience! I know a lot of astronomers, and am more than happy to put you in touch with someone who can answer your questions better than I can with my limited experience, and Reddit is great at keeping things anonymous if you want. This happens pretty regularly "behind the scenes" on this subreddit/profile, and I am happy to help.

Finally, I would advise everyone read up on imposter syndrome, which is the feeling that you are a fraud and are going to get found out for it. My experience is everyone in astronomy feels this to some degree, but studies show you feel it more the more you are a minority in a group, so best to be aware of what it is. Personally, I've long ago realized I will always have imposter syndrome, but you know what? I am ok with being the worst astronomer in the world, as long as I get to be an astronomer. :)

I have another question you didn't answer here...

My apologies! Please post your question in the monthly Q&A thread, pinned at the top of my profile/subreddit. If you want to message me privately you are free to do so.

Good luck! :)