<p>I'm having intense difficulty choosing from the bunch. I can find positives and negatives for each, and it's making my head spin. I've taken tons of career tests and they almost always point to one of the four, but choosing the actual one is chaos. I ultimately enjoy each much.</p>
<p>How to whittle it down? I thought of tossing Physics, but my love for Astronomy is difficult to ignore. Gah.</p>
<p>If you are concerned about job and career prospects, chemistry is the worst of those (consider chemical engineering instead if that is your interest). Take a look at some universities’ [career</a> surveys](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys.html]career”>University Graduate Career Surveys - Career Opportunities & Internships - College Confidential Forums).</p>
<p>Note that freshman year courses in these subjects overlap considerably; if you are unsure between these fields, you should be able to take a set of freshman year courses that will allow choosing any of them with no or minimal “catch up” needed.</p>
<p>Thank you: I found your response very helpful, and knowing that what I take my first semester or two won’t pencil me in is great. I’m considering nosing through some textbooks of all four fields and seeing if that helps move me in any way.</p>
<p>I should also mention that I’d love to work for NASA in some capacity.</p>
<p>Take note that while physics graduates tend to find jobs that pay well, many of them do not actually get physics jobs – they are often recruited into fields that require strong math skills like like quantitative finance or computer software development.</p>
<p>If you major in physics, you may want to consider taking some computer science, economics/finance, and/or statistics to allow an easier transition into these alternative jobs if NASA/astronomy jobs or other physics jobs do not pan out after graduation (or graduate school). (The computer science may also help with NASA/astronomy and other physics jobs.)</p>
<p>Might double-majoring in Computer Science and Physics & Astronomy be a wise investment, then? If this was merely up to academic interest, that would be my ideal, I believe.</p>
<p>Currently, computer science has good job and career prospects (although there is no guarantee that industry cycles will ensure that they are good when you graduate – was not very good in the 2001-2003 downturn).</p>
<p>So if that double major combination is what you want to do anyway, then at least there is a good chance of finding good job and career prospects. Much less agonizing than someone whose passion is biology, humanities, or some other field where the job and career prospects tend to be poor, regardless of economic cycles.</p>
<p>You know, Chemistry isn’t all that bad. The 1 advantage is has over Bio, is that they take much more math, with Bio needing only calc 1 + 2 and stats, while Chem needs programming, Calc 1,2,3, linear algebra and differential equations - almost same as engineering majors, just missing engineering analysis and numerical analysis. So the advantage is, Chem can go to engineering grad school especially in things actually related to chemistry like BME, Environmental, ChemE, Materials or even Mechanical (in combustion if you had fluid electives, energy or materials), while Bio is stuck forever in the deep pits of poverty, starvation and humiliation. </p>
<p>This isn’t enough math for finance though. Physics gets all the math necessary for finance, can go to any engineering grad school, and can do basically anything.</p>
<p>Forget about med school. Professional schools suck in general. They’re just cartels living like leeches off government handouts. When the US government inevitably collapses, the one degree you 100% want to be stuck with is an engineering one.</p>
<p>Thank you guys so much for the informative posts–and also confirming my suspicions about majoring in Bio. Sounds like the Comp Sci and Physics & Astronomy double-major, as long as I decide I can keep up with the workload, is a good deal. I don’t mind having to spend an extra semester or two to make it work, as long as I can find an internship or part-time job that could give me more hours during summers.</p>
<p>CS + Physics is common and highly regarded in grad school, software, electronics hardware design, finance and even sales. Congrats on avoiding a bad major.</p>
<p>^^^Dude, so negative. haha. Instead of saying congrats on the good decision, you give him a congrats on the non-bad decision. Very funny.</p>
<p>Given how giddy I am right now after discussing my path with those whose knowledge and experience I trust, I feel like I’m on a wonderful path. If I could squeeze a chem course or two in there out of intellectual curiosity, that would be good…</p>