Lightly edited reruns from Ye Olde Blog.
This is part 0, tentatively aimed at US high school students wanted to end up doing an astrophysics PhD.
(rant on US high school system observed from outside deleted - see link above if you care).
So, what should YOU do, wanting to get into a good university and an astro/physics major?
1) Take all the math that is offered, and do well in it.
2) Take all the science on offer, and do well in that.
3) Get good grades overall; preferably straight A, but B+ will do. It will get you far enough to have a chance to see if you can hack it at the next level.
4) Do all of this without overextending yourself; university is harder with much more intense workload, you need to be able to step up the pace (and again at grad school).
5) Jump through whatever hoops are needed, try to enjoy the process, or just grit your teeth and do it; the real world is worse that way.
6) Enjoy life.
7) Read. Lots. Of everything.
8) Apply broadly, and aim for good universities, even if teachers and counselors advice you not to. Worry about funding after you find out where you got into, if you don't apply you definitely won't get in.
9) Go to a university you feel comfortable with, but that is academically strong. Reputation does count, unfairly or not. And try to get out of your hometown.
10) There's these whacky things calles SATs. Do well on them. The exam sucks, the way they are used sucks, and they can be gamed; so they are unreliable indicators; but, they do correlate with performance (at least in academic mythology) and beancounters on committees love them because they are an "objective quantifiable indicator", you can cut on them and reduce the time spent thinking about peoples life, almost guilt free.
I've seen many criteria used for university admission, and the US fascination with multiple choice exams is the worst. But it works, in the sense of being functional and arguably not much less fair than all the others.
Did I mention read! Lots.
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This list (at least items 1 - 7, and to some extent 8 & 9) is not so much "So you want to be an astrophysicist?" but "So you want to to be an intelligent person in modern society?" I.e., good advice to anyone. (10 is also good advice, less in the "here's how to be an intelligent, well-rounded person" vein but more as in "here is the first of many arbitrary hoops you'll need to jump through in life, start getting used to it now.")
Yup, that is what we like to think is a good starting point.
Pre-university, the most important thing, in my ever so humble opinion, to becoming an astrophysicist, is to get the technical basis going as early and fast as possible, and then be well rounded.
Being an amateur astronomer can help, generally doesn't hurt, but is not necessary and certainly not sufficient.
A broad general interest in space/stars is also useful, but by no means necessary, except in so far as when specialising it is better in general to do something one generally likes.
looking forward to the latter sections - for those odd people that are interested in astrophysics like myself, who are considering it as their focus in graduate school. You might have written about such already, but wouldnt mind a refresher. Note - my interest falls into experimental work on gravity.
Good advice. Now, if only we could get it to the students. All too many of my first semester students get to university with FAR too little math and science to have any hope of much of any science or enineering major.
Point 9 is more important than 8. You need to fit in. You don't want to go to a university without a physics program, but a small one is fine, as long as it is good. In some sense, it might be better, because you get more individual attention from the faculty, and if the university does not have a lot of graduate students, then the undergraduates get to be more active in the lab. But, you need to fit in.
Point 9 is very important; most people will not do well at an institution they are uncomfortable at, or despise. A few can knuckle down and push through, but not many.
But, when applying you don't know until you look, so my advice is to apply broadly and to "good" universities, and then go with your gut.