<p>What kind of career, after majoring in some harder sciences (like chem/bio/math/physics etc.), would let you travel frequently? I was thinking about doing the whole premed -> doctor -> MSF thing, but honestly, something a bit safer wouldn't be terrible. </p>
<p>Provided I get a degree from a top 20/Ivy school, what kind of career could I go into that would led to travel?</p>
<p>Biased, obviously, but quite a few geology careers get in a good deal of travel. Most of my fieldwork has been in the states (Gulf of Mexico cruise, Florida Keys, most of the upper Midwest, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado), with a spattering in the Caribbean (Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos). Quite a few friends of mine are glaciologists, whose fieldwork is in Antarctica, Greenland, Alaska, or arctic Norway. In my own branch of climate science, the tropical west Pacific is more common (Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Guam, etc.). The travel options are driven by the type of research you do, and there are lots of desk jobs as well (Houston oil being a big one, although there can be international gigs there as well), but it’s something to consider if you’re into science but also like going cool places. Academic research geologists probably do the majority of the far-afield travel.</p>