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How Should I Study Astrophysics?

Hello, I’d like some advice about careers! Apologies for the essay I’ve written below.

I’m in A2 currently.

I have a huge interest in Astrophysics. My biggest dream is becoming an astronaut, even though I know that’s quite bit far fetched. I’m obsessed with the whole idea of astronomy and physics (to a lesser extent, but interested nevertheless) and what astrophysics do for a living is super exciting for me. But I do have many questions concerning college/graduate schools/etc.

While I’m interested in astrophysics, I’ve got a ton of people telling me that it’ll take at least a PhD in order to actually have a fulfilling career/job, and while I do love the idea, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do straightforward education from college to a PhD without a stable career (financial problems, mostly).

For this reason, I also have been thinking about doing something in the aerospace engineering field, as I suppose getting a job as an aerospace engineer would be much quicker—people have told me you have a higher chance of getting a job with only a bachelor’s degree. I’m picking aerospace engineering because of my dream, but also because I think it’s really interesting as well. My only issue is that I love the field of astrophysics far too much to let it go in favor of aerospace engineering.

What should I do here? If I do my undergraduate in aerospace engineering, will I really have any chance in getting a job? And if I do, could I do my masters in Physics with a minor in Astronomy and expect to get actual employment afterwards?

(Every aerospace engineer and astrophysics student is probably laughing by now because of how unrealistic this may seem—I’m well aware both are very, very difficult haha. I guess at this point I sound more like I’m talking “in theory” but oh well. I’ve just always been someone who thinks a bit too…big?)

Thanks!

p.s : I want to say that I have absolutely no idea how colleges or anything related to them works, because of moving schools at the wrong time to another school that doesn’t educate their students about how colleges work. I also don’t have any older siblings or anything, so I apologize in advance if I’ve said something kind of dumb.
You can definitely still get plenty of jobs with a physics and astrophysics degree so don't be put off by what people have told you. The key is to get as much experience as you can outside of just focusing on your degree. A good place to start is by joining UKSEDS, which is the national society for students interested in space. You'll have access to loads of support if you join! Feel free to message me if you have any questions about the application process for university or anything like that.
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Sinnoh
22
To clarify: except for liberal arts courses, there is no minor/major system with university courses in the UK.
If you were to become an astronaut, you'd need experience in flying aircraft and you'd probably have to be in the RAF for a bit. Considering how hyped we got that there was just one publicly-funded astronaut on the ISS... good luck.

Research positions in astronomy/astrophysics (the two are somewhat interchangeable) are very competitive indeed, but so are quite a few aerospace engineering jobs too. More graduates than places.

Obviously research is not the only way forward from physics, and engineering as a profession is not the only way forward from an engineering degree. When you look at the common graduate roles, e.g. finance, IT, management, there's a fair bit of overlap between physics and engineering. So physics is quite employable, just don't expect to be literally doing physics as a job outside of research or some engineering maybe (though I was told by someone else on here about the applications of a hydrodynamics equation in the field of finance).
My DS has just completed an integrated masters degree in Physics and Astronomy - he started with straight physics and then moved over to the joint degree. An integrated masters means that you do 3 years of a bachelor's degree and then a year of masters, but as it all counts as an undergraduate degree you only have one loan from Student Finance. if you do a physics degree and then a separate masters you end up with 2 loans which have to be paid back at the same time.

He is about to travel to Germany to do a PhD in astrophysics - this is fully funded and he is receiving a bursary to live on. Any of his friends who are going on to do PhDs have fully funded ones which include living costs - these are not loans so don't have to be paid back.

If astrophysics is your dream it is possible to go onto a Phd and then research without it costing you - but it won't be a well paid career!

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