IT and I want to switch to Astrophysics

[Yara_Yara]

Hello everyone,

I hope I'm writing this in the right forum.

I am so desperate for guidance


== Long story short ==

I have a BSc in Information Technology and I want to get into astronomy and astrophysics for graduate school.
how can I make this shift in fields? do I have to go through undergraduate school once again or a few courses will be enough to prepare me for graduate school?



please read the long story it gives more insight on my situation



==Short story Long ==



I have a BSc in Information Technology and I have been working as a web developer for the past 3 years.

when I graduated high school I was top of my class with 97% average and almost perfect grades in math and physics.

Starting college,with not too many options for college fields of study in my country and only one university at my town :( , the best 2 fields I could go to were either Medicine or Computer Applications. I went for Computer Applications.

by the time I began, a lot of changes in the department started happening and by the time I graduated the department name changed to Information Technology

u can imagine the ancient courses I had to take only to be canceled from the department's plan by the time the semeter ends.

It was chaotic.I hated every second.

After 5 years , I graduated with a GPA of 3.3/5 .It was very depressing to me cause I know I am capable of better than that if I were in a better educational institution.

Working as a Web Developer. I enjoyed the first year mainly due to the fact it was my first job ever and it paid very well. As the years went by ,I could not find myself doing this for too long especially when it started to turn into a more business oriented field. My brain is wired for a different purpose and a different field. which made me unhappy with the field I'm currently in.

Having no career guidance whatsoever, I had no idea the I could be doing other things. I had no idea that there are different fields that might interest me enough to keep curious.

Last year, I stumbled upon Carl Sagan Cosmos series and I lost sleep ever since. it was my eureka moment. I had no idea that this is what I'm supposed to do. It fit me pretty well.
Everyday when I come back home from work, all I do ,say , read , or search is astronomy and astrophysics related. I began to leisurely study Stellar Astrophysics on my own and I was only reassured that this is what I'm meant to do.



My dilemmma is, I have no idea how to start. should I apply for graduate school in astrophysics or go through undergraduate school once again (I have no problem).

do universities offer preparatory courses before delving into a new field and which ones should I apply to or at least would accept a student with my qualifications

I am absolutely clueless and I need help. I really cannot sleep over this.

Thank you and I apologize for the length of my post I just had to let it all out.

 

[realfuzzhead]

I can't help you here, but I also stumbled across Sagan not too long ago, and I knew I had to get into astrophysics. I'd always been interested in the topic, but never to the point where I was willing to just sit and read all day in the library. I just finished a 5th book of his, and they were all ****ing amazing. Pale Blue Dot being the first and the one that absolutely changed my life.

 

[twofish-quant]

Last year, I stumbled upon Carl Sagan Cosmos series and I lost sleep ever since. it was my eureka moment. I had no idea that this is what I'm supposed to do. It fit me pretty well. Everyday when I come back home from work, all I do ,say , read , or search is astronomy and astrophysics related. I began to leisurely study Stellar Astrophysics on my own and I was only reassured that this is what I'm meant to do.

I'd advise that you start taking some basic courses in physics so that you know what you are getting into. Climbing Mount Everest sounds cool if you are reading about it, but the first thing to do is to start climbing some smaller mountain to see if you really like it after you've done a bit of it.

Astrophysics is a lot of druggery and you'll find that real astrophysics is more like IT and web development than you might like. Everything thinks that astrophysics is cool when you've read Sagan. It's after you speed a month of your life trying to find the #$@#$ bug in the @#$@#$ program, that you know if you really like it or not.

The other thing that you should realize is that there are very few jobs in astrophysics and more likely than not after you've climbed Everest, you'll find yourself back in web development.