• Question: hey my name is jack in a super fan i wish to be a scientist when i grow up how long do u have to study for

    Asked by caseman to Stephen, Lauren, Joseph, Eoin on 11 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Joseph Roche

      Joseph Roche answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      An undergraduate degree takes 3 – 4 years, followed by a 1-2 years for a Masters and/or 3-5 years for a PhD.

      So it can vary for everyone, but I think about 8 years is acceptable (4 year degree, followed by 4 year PhD).

      It sounds like a long time but it flies by when you’re having fun 🙂

    • Photo: Eoin O Colgain

      Eoin O Colgain answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      If one picks the subject area and project right, one may be able to make an impact direct from undergraduate (after 4 years), just at the start of your PhD. This way one can get a taste for research pretty early to decide if one likes it or not.

      Lots of students in my area want to be the next Einstein, but the reality may be pages and pages of A4 calculations or 6 months to a year debugging code. Good to get an idea what is involved as soon as possible; an undergraduate project is ideal.

    • Photo: Stephen Scully

      Stephen Scully answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      You need to finish school and do about 8 years in college.

    • Photo: Lauren Mc Keown

      Lauren Mc Keown answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      Hey Jack! Glad to hear it 😉 Well it all depends on what area of science you want to go in to. If you want to be a lecturer or a researcher at a well – known institute, you will probably have to go all the way and do a PhD. Some people do the usual 4 years of undergraduate study after the Leaving Cert. and then do a Masters for 1-2 years, then do a PhD. If you work hard enough, you can just go straight into a PhD which is what I have done. It saves time, but you have to learn a lot of skills at the start which a masters may have taught you! After that, if you have another area of interest in science you would like to learn more about, you can do a post – doc. which can take anything from a few months to a couple of years, but usually at this stage the student knows a lot about what they are doing and loves it, so that is mostly out of interest.

      In order to get there as fast as you can, I would recommend you to start thinking about what areas of science you like best right now – then maybe do some camps on the subject or talk to some people in the area who are always more than willing to advise you. Then you can be really sure you are going into the right area. That’s what I did anyway!

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