Degrees in Astrophysics or Anthropology?

[PixieofCatan]

I'm looking at doing a degree in a few years time with a local university. I'm currently trying to work out what route I'd like to go down but I'll need to do an Access to HE or Advanced diploma first. I'm going to spend the next year/18 months doing free online courses across both subjects to get a feel for them and work out what I which subject I prefer, but if anybody can share experiences on either subject (or suggest what more in-depth subjects would be worth studying over the next year within Astrophysics or Anthropology!) I'd really appreciate it!

I have always had a vague interest in both subjects, and the only thing that puts me off of Astrophysics is the more technical mathematics, but DP had similar issues and he's now doing a degree in Engineering, so I have hope that I may be able to pull it off if that's the route I go down! I loved the planets and learning about them as a teen, but I like history and languages/language development too, hence anthropology.

UCLAN do an astronomy degree by distances learning - it's worth looking at some of their sample course materials from their website (although you can't really tell how difficult you'd find it to actually worth through the material until you actually try). Seems quite rigorous. Another option if you don't want to restrict yourself to what your local university offers. I expect the OU may offer something similar as well.

www.studyastronomy.com/

UCL do a p/t evening certificate in Astronomy which could be doable if you could travel one evening a week - sounds more practical based and they don't require A levels. Not a substitute for a degree but perhaps just a way to develop your subject knowledge.

www.ucl.ac.uk/phys/admissions/certificate/index/

I also have Physics degree with a significant amount of Astrophysics. I found the maths fine but it's always been a good subject for me. I would recommend leaving more time before to prepare yourself before starting a degree, especially as you've been out of education for a while and if you want to do the A level route (rather than Access course). If possible, it might be worth doing Further Maths A level as well as Maths as I found it very useful, and will give you a better idea of where your maths skills are. I don't think you should necessarily be too negative about your prospects (although research is a dire area to be getting into these days), but I agree that maths is a subject that some people just don't 'get', regardless of how bright they are in other areas. So it's not a reflection on a person's intelligence, more about how their brain works.

I have a suggestion to offer, OP

Go onto the AQA or OCR website and take a look at the specification for Maths and further maths A levels - they have the content of all of their modules listed. Obviously when you start you'll start with C1 and M1 and then work up to modules like C4 and FP2. That'll give you an idea of what you're looking at for the A levels you'll need before you start. ( the majority of astrophysicists will have further maths as well as maths)

My DS did astrophysics at Bristol and the vast majority of the course was maths (well, tbh, I can't really spot the difference between bits of physics and bits of maths!). Very little was looking at stars - very, very little. Mostly it was computer lab based.

Ps love your DH's comments - quite right, these are the things we need to know!

It's a weird mix to be interested in. One is so hard science & the other is much more touchy feely.

I dare say Anthropology has more career prospects; big companies want them on board in HR dept. All sorts of angles, too, like medical-social-linguistic etc.

"Not sure whether differential equations are considered A level or first year undergraduate these days."

Gosh! I did them at O level.

Sorry, just realised that might come over as far too smug. It was meant to be genuine surprise. (I gave up maths after O level)

Anthropology looks like a fascinating field. It's one that never occurred to me when I was younger, and I wish it had (Arch and Anth looks a really interesting combination as well).

If you decide to do astrophysics as a first degree you can always do Anthropology after as an MA because they are often open to taking students from a broad range of backgrounds. I finished my MA in Anth at UCL not so long ago with a completely unrelated first degree.

I would echo what other people have said about everyone having a natural maths ceiling. I found mine at undergraduate level after finding A-levels in maths and further maths no problem. Yes I was able to plug away and pass but it was in no way enjoyable. A levels definitely a good starting point for you to test the water though.

Good luck! Planning studies is always exciting!

Sorry, been really sodding busy at work the past couple of days, only 7 days left of my 11 day week this week [pft]

I was talking to DP yesterday and I think I will most likely go for Anthropology, it holds my interest much more and I'll be able to do more with it. It would also suit me more.

I'll still be doing a lot of Maths over the next 18 months though, as I said earlier, I'm embarrassed by my Maths skills. I was never amazing at it, I wasn't bad either, got a C at GCSE with no revision or care for the subject. I just never really wanted to learn because in both high schools I had massive issues with bullies in Maths (and every other subject, but Maths was one of the worst classes).

days thank you for the links, good to know I could do Astronomy via distance learning! That would be preferable I think. I will have quite a while to prepare myself for university thankfully. I just wish I'd never been pushed into it at 18 as I am going to have to pay £3000 for an Access course as I won't be able to get funding for both that and a 3 year degree!

beck Great idea, thanks :) I can't tell the difference between certain bits of the Maths and Physics with DPs degree either We have board gaming nights at our house occasionally and he'll invite his engineering buddies. As soon as they start talking about in depth Engineering concepts I'm lost! I can hold my own in their conversations to a certain point, but they tend to go beyond that very quickly!

DP is a Muppet He is very good at teaching though, so I'm looking forward to learning with him, he'll be teaching me some of the basics of coding at some point which I'm excited about.

lljkk It is, which is why I'm indecisive about the two I think. If they were similar I wouldn't worry so much, but I don't like the idea of getting ten years into the future and thinking "Oh shit, I should have done the other course all along!" I like that with Anthropology, I'd be able to link it to my current career (childcare). I love languages too, so I could go into how children develop language around the world, how children are raised differently around the world, how languages have developed around the world, etc etc. The possibilities are endless and can flow with my current interests to a certain extent.

The only problem with Anthropology is that (based on very limited research into it) is that I can't find a distance learning option, but that may change in the next few years. I love the degree that my local university offers, I love the university and their electives are amazing, but by the time I can do my degree we'll have relatively young children, so they will need childcare whilst I am at uni full time if I can't find a distance learning option that suits.

Fara No worries, I think that people are expected to do less in maths these days. Archaeology or Architecture? Because both fascinate me, I can't do archaeology due to health issues though (I wouldn't be able to do the excavations, which would make it uninteresting for me!) and architecture is a lot more drawing than I'd like to do as a job!

Mummy Very good to know, thank you! I am enjoying planning, I've had to put it on hold for years because I have never been sure enough about a subject to want to do one and because I've just had to work so much to live, but we've realised that I'm better off doing one sooner, and once again I've realised that I am coming back to the same two subjects every time I think about it.

Can you not get a 24+ loan for your Access course? You can still get student loan/grant funding afterwards for a degree.The repayments are written off if you complete a degree after the Access course (repayments for the 24+ loan, you still have to repay loans for your degree of course).

Oh, is the 24+ loan completely separate then? That would be brilliant! I will contact the college in September and talk about my options with them to find out more :) thank you! And if I don't have to pay it back, bonus ;)

Coursera do a 'pre-calculus' free online course (currently running). It's pretty intensive but very comprehensive. Like you, I wanted to improve my maths prior to doing a PG course one day. I am on week 2 of this 8 week course and really enjoying it. You can take an exam at the end and purchase a certificate of attainment which will evidence your continuing academic development. Good luck!

That's on my list of courses to do later :) I'm signed up to four courses before Christmas now :) mainly critical thinking and learning technique type courses. And one about dinosaurs, because I can

I did social anthropology for my BA. I was lucky that my uni offered courses in biological and social anth and you could choose options from both or either. I focused on social in 2nd + 3rd year so have a BA but I do now wish I'd done a broader split. If I had my time again I would do more biological anth and go into paleolinguistics. But I took a different path, hey ho.

Anyway, I really enjoyed anth, it's a broad subject, lots to get your teeth into and it's relevant to lots of different things. I did find myself uncomfortable with some of the attitudes people had to 'exotic' cultures. It seemed like everyone wanted to study/do fieldwork somewhere really different and then got all up in arms about globalisation/eradication of cultures. Fair enough, but there was more than a smidge of 'I want these cultures to be preserved because they're so interesting for me to study' which I found distasteful. I found economic and urban anthropology much more up my street.

I did a levels in english lit, history and economics and I'd say they were pretty good prep for all aspects, although biology would have been helpful for some of the bio-anth modules I studied.

Good luck OP!