I want to study Physics in University and be a Physicist when I grow up. What advice can you give me?

Any advice, or footsteps I should follow- any suggestions are welcome.I want to study Physics in University and be a Physicist when I grow up. What advice can you give me?
How old are you?





My first piece of advice is stay flexible. Do not assume that you know now exactly what you want to be.





Physicists have to love math--especially its wierder, more abstract aspects. If you like applied math and think anything more complicated than calculus is a waste of time, you're probably an engineer at heart. You'll love physics at first, but then get bored when your studies take you into quantum mechanics and beyond into things that are hardly practical. If you like math purely for math's sake and think proving something is really much more fun than just knowing it (and loved high school geometry), you're probably a mathematician at heart. A physicist is somewhere in between. So as you progress in your math and science courses, stay open to new experiences and possibilities and figure out what you like. Maybe a related field like chemistry or electrical engineering or geology will grab you. Maybe the siren call of money (and all the good things that go with it) will draw you to apply your talents on Wall Street rather than living a more modest life probing the secrets of the universe. It's a fact of life that anyone who is smart enough to make significant contributions in physics could make themselves a heck of a lot more in more earthly pursuits.





So in junior high and high school, take the most challenging math and science (of all flavors) courses you can handle and fit in your schedule. AP Chem, Bio, Physics, Calc, Stats, Computer Science--as many as possible. In college, if you still think physics is your calling, you'll want to major in physics. It doesn't matter much WHERE you go for your undergrad degree. In fact, try to find a college where your profs actually talk to you and teach you rather than the big name university where the famous profs are busy doing their important research. In college, don't forget that the point of your undergraduate time is to get a BROAD education. Besides your majors courses, you should learn a few things about culture. Develop your ability to express yourself in writing and speech. Have a good time. As an undergrad in physics, you have many options for careers (and further education) from finance to law to medicine to engineering. Maybe you love teaching. A bacheloriate degree is sufficient to teach high school physics.








But if you still love physics and want to continue (and are good enough), you can progress to graduate school to get your PhD. This is when you want to get into big-name famous U (or the best one you can get into), because now those famous profs actually have time for you, since you'll be helping them. After a year of classes relearning all the basic subjects at a deeper level, you will specialize (particle physics, astro, plasma, solid state, or whatever). In your second year you'll take courses in that specialty and begin research under a prof. For the next few years after that, you'll continue research until you've come to the leading edge of knowledge in your field (at least in one teeny-tiny area) and have produced a work of original scholarship that actually adds to the existing body of knowledge in the world. That will get you your PhD.





At that point, you might again choose to leave the main track of academic physics and find a job in industry or finance or something (which will pay you much better with your PhD than anything in academia). Maybe you decide now that you like teaching rather than research and look for a job at a teaching college. But if physics is your calling, you continue on and take a postdoctoral assignment or two where you hone your research skills and start to develop some leadership in guiding research teams. If that goes well, maybe you get a faculty position. And if that goes well (you publish enough papers and can bring in enough grant money), you'll get tenure and be set for life (more or less) doing what you love.





So there's the path.I want to study Physics in University and be a Physicist when I grow up. What advice can you give me?
Get out a Physics Textbook and read it a few times over.


Then buy a new one and repeat.