Astrophysics & Planetary Astronomy

[Dominatus]

This is not a science post, so to speak... I am going into college soon and think that I have narrowed down my prospective fields of study into a subject I hope to have a career in someday. As you can probably guess from the title, that falls under Astrophysics and Planetary astronomy- specifically the formation of the planets, theoretical planet formation, things that could have influenced the formation history and current orbital positions of the planets in our sky, etc. I am looking into universities in the state of Michigan with a decent program at least in astrophysics. I was wondering if their were any recommendations for schools besides U of M, MSU and CMU that have good programs in these fields. I was also wondering what sort of careers that a major/ minor in these areas could land me. I love to research this sort of stuff and the theoretical work allows some room for creativity and imagination that fits in with how we understand the natural world, enough to make a research position interesting. Any help here is greatly appreciated!

[UmbralRaptor]

Your undergraduate school doesn't matter that much, as long as it has a decent physics and/or geology program. Grad school, though...

Note that it's easy to get overspecialized into an area where your degree is really for teaching and research only. (Neither of which is expanding) If you want a career in industry, some form of engineering is far safer, though still not guaranteed.

Edited January 20, 2015 by UmbralRaptor