QUESTION: 
How much education does it take to become an astronomer and be able to do
the work that you are doing?

ANSWER from Megan Donohue on March 21, 1996:
I am a research astronomer, which means I direct my own research actvities,
I'm qualified to propose for grant money from government agencies like
NASA and for observing time on national telescopes like HST, the obseratories
on Kitt Peak (Tucson) and Cerro Tololo (Chile). I say that because you need
a PhD to be allowed to do that, for the most part.

I got a bachelor's in physics (some people major in other physical sciences,
but most astronomers get their bachelor degrees in physics or physics with
an astronomy concentration.) I actually didn't take a lot of astronomy as
an undergraduate. I took as much math as I could fit into my schedule - I
came very close to completing a double major in math, but I didn't see
much advantage to having a double major.

I wrote an undergraduate thesis, which was very important in convincing me that
this was the sort of thing I wanted to do with my life.

The next big chunk of life is spent in graduate school in astronomy or 
physics with astronomy specialization. Graduate school takes anywhere 
from 4 to 7 years, with 5-6 being about the norm. In graduate school 
you only take courses for a year or two. Most of the time is spent 
working with a professor (advisor) to do research, develop a thesis 
topic and complete the PhD thesis.

I note that graduate school is VERY different from the school experience 
you may be familiar with. For one thing, in the physical sciences, you 
are paid to go to school and do research. You don't pay your own tuition. 
You work any hours you want, as long as you get the work done. Your 
teachers eventually become your peers as you mature and learn. You don't 
get rich going to grad school, but you shouldn't be going into debt either.

After graduate school, most astronomers apply for temporary (1-3 year) 
positions called "post-docs." In some academic fields, graduate students 
apply for long-term positions like professorships at universities or 
industrial jobs - particularly in engineering. But most astronomers move 
around from post-doc to post-doc position until they find a permanent 
position at a university, government lab or even industry. During a 
post-doctoral position, one does more research, sometimes extended your 
thesis work or branching into new areas, makes friends with other 
researchers, writes papers for journals and gives talks. They usually 
don't teach or supervise others. I'd guess that most astronomers have 
been in anywhere from 1-3 of these postdocs before finding a permanent 
position.

In short, after high school, it's about 4 years of undergraduate, 6 years 
of graduate school, and (this still counts as education, but you get 
paid about 2-2.5 times what a graduate student makes and you're mostly on 
your own without an advisor) 3-6 years of post-doctoral work.

This account is strongly flavored by my own personal experience, but 
I've tried to give you a sort of average early career of an astronomer 
in the 90s. (Someone who became an astronomer in the 1970s may give a 
very different answer because the field was different back then.)

Megan