• Question: how many years of work did you have to do to become a scientist

    Asked by angel1996 to Daniel, Jon, Louise, Sharon, Zoe on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Well, not counting school, I did a 4 year degree from age 17-21 in Developmental biology, then I did a PhD which took me 3 years and 4 days! So that’s a total of 7 years at university, although my PhD was more like work than studying.

      Apart from being at university, I’ve been working as a scientist for about 8 years and I’m still learning!

    • Photo: Louise Dash

      Louise Dash answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      To become a professional scientist, where someone wanted to actually pay me for doing science (!) took quite a long time. My first degree (an MSci in Physics) took me 6 years because I did it part time, but would only have taken 4 years if I’d done it full time. Then I did a PhD, which took me 3.5 years.

    • Photo: Jon Copley

      Jon Copley answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Three years for an undergraduate degree, one year for a Masters degree, and three-and-a-half years for my PhD – so that’s seven-and-a-half years.

    • Photo: Zoe Duck

      Zoe Duck answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      That depends on how you are defining a scientist. I did my GCSES at school then spent 2 years doing A levels. After that I went to university for 4 years to do an MSci in Natural Sciences. I am now doing a PhD which takes 4 years (I am currently in my 3rd), so I guess it depends what you count!

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