I’m having a bit of a crisis. For years I’ve prepared for a career in, of all things, astronomy. I’ve always been interested in it and since my teachers always told me to “follow my dreams” it made sense for me to look for a career in it. I didn’t look at actual jobs in astronomy until recently, and I realized it was nothing what I expected. There’s no way this plan is going to work out, so I need to change my career path fast, but this is my last semester in high school and I’m already signed up to go to colleges for astronomy, so it looks like I’m locked in…
Now I’m looking at doing welding. My brother started that path years ago and has had tons of success. I want to be like him, but I fear it’s way too late to change now. What can I do?
You can disenroll from college if you have changed your mind. You may lose any nonrefundable deposits if you have paid any yet. You aren’t locked in. If you change your mind again, you’ll have to reapply to college.
You can ask if any of your colleges will allow you to change major, or if you can take a gap year and apply to different schools, pursue welding during a gap year or other options. When I first read your post, I thought you were a COLLEGE student. As a HS student, you have so many options.
You are not really locked into astronomy as a hs senior and even as a college freshman. I assume you chose a college that offers astronomy as a major, but you can switch your major to other sciences or other disciplines. You don’t really need to know your major at this point. Welding is something that might not be offered at 4 year colleges, so whether you want to change colleges or just change your major from astronomy is something to think about.
Most college freshman change their major. You are not locked into anything. But what kind of jobs did you find in Astronomy that make you think you can’t also combine other interests like welding?
It is possible to change majors at most colleges. However, welding is often taught at a technical school which means you may not be able to switch majors to welding. In addition, it is not always possible to switch to a major if that major is full. This affects the most in demand majors like computer science.
You can talk to the admissions office at the places you are accepted to see what is involved with changing your major. Your guidance counselor can help you find information about studying welding somewhere else.
Also realize there are other jobs beside Astronomist you can do with an astronomy degree. You learn various skills that you can apply elsewhere.
HOWEVER, there are many, many jobs available for which an astronomy bachelor’s degree could prepare you besides being an astronomer or astrophysicist! That’s because of all the computer/technology/engineering/analytical/communication skills you develop in the astronomy classes and research projects. Consider this short list of what you can do with an astronomy/astrophysics degree (in alphabetical order): aerospace engineer, analyst, astronomer, astrophysicist, climatologist, chemical engineer, computer systems analyst, data analyst, design engineer, educator outside the classroom (such as museum education & outreach coordinator), electrical engineer, engineer, geophysicist, industrial engineer, instrument designer, laboratory technician, mathematician, mechanical engineer, observatory manager, photographer, planetarium director, policy analyst, professor, programmer, physicist, research assistant, research scientist, science writer/journalist, software developer, software engineer, statistician, teacher (high school science), telescope engineeer, telescope operator, theoretical astrophysicist, and others.