Schools University is such a spaghetti cluster of choice

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Navigating the application process for STEM courses can be confusing, particularly regarding career outcomes and the flexibility of various fields. There is a lack of clear resources detailing how specific degrees translate into careers, leading to questions about the overlap between disciplines like math, physics, and engineering. Individuals are seeking guidance on which engineering fields have more research opportunities and how to pursue specialized careers, such as computational biochemistry or cybersecurity. The discussion emphasizes the importance of understanding the academic landscape and potential career paths, as well as the relevance of programming skills in modern STEM fields. Ultimately, deciding on a specific career direction is crucial for making informed educational choices.
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For someone who kinda likes all stems in general,this process of applying to the right course is very,ver messy.There's no place in internet (that I found) with a clear explanation of what each course gets you in terms of career and from which courses those careers get people

To be concise, it's not very defined what can be done with said degree, yes electrical engineering has electricity, but can I be a researcher in physics, can I this, Can I that? If I wanted to study the dna structure to make something cool, I should what?
Let me build up my question:
Which engineering has more research -or at least which has plenty.

How flexible are individual STEM fields?
->For example, math: I know many get work in 'computer' related things (basically it overlaps a lot with Comp Sci), like criptography, or low-level programming (not so sure of that), then there's what a random folk from the field would think:search more about the 'fundamental' of math

Then there's the classic: how much physics does each engineering has;as in, which studies physics in a more fundamental level (a view of things as a contiguous solid is less fundamental than viewing the world through the atoms lens), which course has more maths, how close to physics quantity of math,etc.

Ok,now: How, from such generic courses,people get so specific works:
->The other day I heard about computational biochemistry, if I ever wanted to be a computational biochemist, what path would I need to take? Double major chemistry and biology and minor in CS, or chemistry then biology's master and whatsoever.What?!
->If,just for the example,I wanted to work at Intel:
*May work as comp sci if developing the higher level aspects of CPU?or math
*If I wanted to make those transistors that have little to no atoms so small they are, were quantum physics is used,my background would be physics/electrical engineering/chemical engineering/other?
->If I wanted to work with cyber security and prevent the next NHS hack (:oldtongue:), would there be something specific to do after majoring (specific masters, or just applying to relevant companies)

Is there something like, universities specializing in certain fields? For example I heard that Italy has a big focus in particle physics. If I wanted another specialty, would I do it in Italy or would I have to go somewhere else?

How broad physics/chemistry are? The generic answer is "very",but that's quite vague. How many careers overlaps with other fields (It could be math,engineering, computer science everything really) and how much is 'field specific'.

For any STEM field (ANY),how much work there is for said field in the academia, how much for research, both public and private, and how much in the industry.Of course there are strong bias, like engineering,by definition, is industry oriented,mostly, but are there engineerings majors out there (or some combo with CS/physics/whatever degrees) with good footing in research? Finally, how vital is programming/cs for today's varied fields? Saw mentioned many times that modern math discoveries are bigly made with indispensable use of computers
Before I say goodbye;Yes I know that this text is quite big and I'm just basically asking everything, but no one in my family has a fling of a STEM background to advice, none of my teachers have helped much (neither the one or two stem majors I talked to), so mostly of what I know comes from googling basically and,I may be asking too much, but I feel I'm quite lost :oldfrown: . I've no bias so far towards a bachelor from the another, I don't know what kind of googling could help; so that's how I came to here, to finally create an account and make this absurd post. If anyone got the general point of this topic and feels like helping this disastrous soul here it would be nice haha

Cheers
 
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Decide what you want to do - that's more important than all the rest.
Then, contact head hunters, or human resources people for the companies that hire those jobs. Explain to them that you are researching to choose a career/college/specific field of study, and ask them for permission to ask about their hiring preferences, rather than just diving in - polite humility will serve you well in this endeavor.
Once they agree, ask DIRECT, CONCISE questions that you have prepared in advance, and afterward, thank everyone, even if they were not very helpful. (You may meet them again when you have that degree...)

It is unclear to me if this would be acceptable over the phone, or via email - my gut tells me that traveling to them is more likely to get you a successful interview. Dress business casual, or better, depending on venue.

Good Luck.
 
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Hey, I am Andreas from Germany. I am currently 35 years old and I want to relearn math and physics. This is not one of these regular questions when it comes to this matter. So... I am very realistic about it. I know that there are severe contraints when it comes to selfstudy compared to a regular school and/or university (structure, peers, teachers, learning groups, tests, access to papers and so on) . I will never get a job in this field and I will never be taken serious by "real"...
Yesterday, 9/5/2025, when I was surfing, I found an article The Schwarzschild solution contains three problems, which can be easily solved - Journal of King Saud University - Science ABUNDANCE ESTIMATION IN AN ARID ENVIRONMENT https://jksus.org/the-schwarzschild-solution-contains-three-problems-which-can-be-easily-solved/ that has the derivation of a line element as a corrected version of the Schwarzschild solution to Einstein’s field equation. This article's date received is 2022-11-15...
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