What field of science to do :S

Good to hear. Maybe there's hope for you yet.

heh. Don't let the rock heads confuse you. There's simply no better field than conservation biology or ecology. What other job can you have where you spend your mornings playing frisbee on some gorgeous, deserted tropical beach while waiting for the Olive Ridleys to come ashore so you can complete your nesting behavior survey?

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heh. Don't let the rock heads confuse you. There's simply no better field than conservation biology or ecology. What other job can you have where you spend your mornings playing frisbee on some gorgeous, deserted tropical beach while waiting for the Olive Ridleys to come ashore so you can complete your nesting behavior survey?

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--Oh yeah? You want to play hard-ball ecoman? Why would you want to play frisbee on a beach when you can build a giant subterranean ship and dive deep into the earths core to save the world from the catastrophic effects of a geomagnetic reversal!...well ok, maybe not. But geophysics is cool!--Maybe a geophysicist will be able to go on a mission to Europa to obtain seismic images and determine where the ice is the thinnest or something.Cheers,
-Chris Grose

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Even if it is low in the job market, I would think that if you excell substantially, there will be certainly be a good place for you (probably more so if you are interested in teaching)--and what better time to start than now.

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If you're the best guy in the country, sure. Otherwise, maybe not. There are plenty of good, well-qualified people who can't find jobs in their fields. When I was a postdoc in high energy physics, the situation was that two-thirds of postdocs would have to leave the field because there were no permanent jobs for them -- and that was before the funding environment turned ugly. Most of these people were highly competent (most of the chaff gets weeded out before then). It is true that there are plenty of people who are willing to take that kind of risk, or who think it's worth learning a scientific specialty even if it turns out they won't be able to practice it, but it's something that's worth thinking about earlier rather than later. Discovering that you've been training for ten or twelve years for a career you can't actually have can be a bit distressing.

then the most important decision is not where to do your undergrad degree (though better schools help) it is where to do your PhD.In the US especially there is about 10 schools that really help otherwise you are fighting an uphill battle. Despite what they say just look at the faculty of the top 50 schools and where they went to school. Same thing in Europe too. They all hire from the same schools.This is not a hard and fast rule (their are talented exceptions) but grad school choice (and the postdocs afterwards) are very important.As an example at my school the faculty all went to either CalTech, Harvard, Yale, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford, London, Berkeley or Chicago.Oh and by the way - astrophysics is the only way to go!

If you have a broad interest (that is crossing over many science disciplines), I suggest not picking a solid field (chemistry, biology, physics).Ask yourself which you find more interesting: living systems, planetary systems, or how living systems interact with planetary systems?If you are interested in living systems go for biochemistry, or molecular biology.If you are interested in planetary systems go for geology, astronomy, or subsets of oceanography/meteorology.If you are interested in how the two interact take ecology or environmental chemistry.Personally I went into chemistry (concentrating on physical and analytical). I ended up drifting mentally because I had so many side interests. Not that what I didn't like what I was doing, just that I could still be distracted by more interesting topics. Namely I was interested by topics that APPLIED all the theories I was learning.I then switched into geology (technically Earth Science which covered geology/geophysics/hydrology/mineralogy/geochemistry/oceanography/meteorology). This was much more satisfying to me because of the broad use and application of all the other specific fields to understand my main subject.Studying rocks means understanding chemistry and physics and if one is a Paleontologist then biology too. It is not just looking at a rock. Of course you get the outside adventure of going to get them, which is nothing like lab work.Lately, as I have gotten into evolution debates, I find myself interested in biochem and molecular biology.Only if you are truly interested in the general theories behind chem, bio, or physics, regardless of their application, should you go into them.That's my two cents (plus $40+K in college expenses).

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holmes