• Question: how long does it take to be a scientist

    Asked by jjfarooq to Tim, Dalya, Derek, Sarah, Tom on 19 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by nascientist.
    • Photo: Tim Millar

      Tim Millar answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      You can be a scientist quite quickly. I would say a degree in science will make you a scientist so by the age of 21. If you want to take it further to become a doctor (PhD) then that usualy another 3 – 5 years. Then if you want a career in science you can follow the usual career paths for the rest of your working life.

      So it can take some time but as we are all life long learners, theres no rush!

    • Photo: Derek McKay-Bukowski

      Derek McKay-Bukowski answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Bare minimum would be 3-4 years at university. But most scientists study several degrees making it 5-10. Science jobs can be quite competitive, so many people study for longer to give them a better chance.

      Oh… and I agree with Tim that we are all life-time learners.

    • Photo: Dalya Soond

      Dalya Soond answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      You are always learning to be a better scientist, so I would say your whole lifetime. But you can work in labs with only an HND (but you would not be doing the same things as someone with a PhD would).

    • Photo: Tom Crick

      Tom Crick answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      It can take quite a long time to study at university: I did my degree in Computer Science and then a PhD in Computing, which took about 8 years! And I am continually learning and staying up to date with my research area…

      But I think that everyone can be a scientist no matter what they do, as long as they have a passion and an interest.

    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      I think anyone can be a scientist anytime! You can do your own experiments at home and investigate the world around you.

      But yes usually you will have to go to uni for around 4 years to be a professional scientist. But uni is not all bad, you’ll have an awesome time! Uni is a time for hard work and studying, but the social life is really important too. And you’ll have way more holidays than at school. You are only actually at uni for around 6 months of the year!!

      A lot of people do PhDs after their degrees but this is really not required if you want to be a scientist – it’s just if you really want to be a research scientist, you have to do back to uni and do some research first. But you get paid to do a PhD and you work in the lab all day every day so it’s really just like having a job! I’m doing my PhD at the moment! 😀

Comments