Difference in Physics Career Fields

[James_Roy]

I am 15 and in high school and recently there has been a big push in our school system to decide on your career now. For the past 7 years I have had it in my mind to become a nuclear physicist. Now, however, I can not decide on what physics field to go into. I can not choose between nuclear, astro or theoretical physics. In the past I have read over career descriptions but what would the career actually be like? Words are often forged to play on the beliefs of others and I wish to know what really occurs at the job sites.

 

[symbolipoint]

The school system cannot force you to make a specific choice now. The system could at best, make you TRY to make a BROAD DECISION as soon as possible so that you have a sense of direction; and you MUST be allowed to explore along that direction and change your mind.

 

[Choppy]

It's great that you have a deep interest in physics.

For the most part the education path that most physicists follow beyond high school is a bachelor's degree in physics. After that, you specialize in graduate school when you start working towards a PhD. That's where you would be deciding between nuclear physics, astrophysics, etc. Students make that decision by (in no particular order):
- taking senior undergraduate physics courses in a number of different sub-fields
- participating in research projects through summer jobs, volunteering, or through senior/thesis projects in their fourth year of under grad
- reading
- talking and sharing experiences with other undergraduates
- talking with professors, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students
- and even trial and error.

There are lots of threads around about what a physicist actually does. The specifics vary from specialty to specialty. There are also lots of threads about how difficult it is to get a job in academia. The moral of the story, usually, is to make sure you have a backup plan for your career, as most people who get a PhD in physics don't end up as professors.