Career Opportunities
Penn State students with a B.S. in astronomy & astrophysics have been successful in establishing careers in a wide variety of technical fields. Students should be aware that a degree in astronomy is less well known by employers than degrees in computer science or physics. We encourage majors intending to end their education with a B.S. to obtain a minor or double major in one of these two allied fields. Students interested in job placement after a B.S. degree are strongly encouraged to participate in departmental research or the Eberly College of Science Internship or Co-op program during their time at Penn State.
The Planetary Science and Astronomy degree was designed to provide students with flexibility to pursue careers in technical fields, formal education, or informal education (e.g., a planetarium or science center) after the B.S. degree. A career in formal education will likely require additional coursework in an M.Ed. or M.A.T. program that provides teaching certification, however, planetaria and science centers usually do not require graduate coursework.
Recent graduates who chose to find employment after receiving their bachelor of science degrees in ASTRO found work in a wide range of capacities, including:
- Industry (including computer software, high-technology, telecommunications, and aerospace companies)
- High schools and universities
- Armed services
- Astronomical research enterprises like the Allegheny Observatory, Space Telescope Science Institute, and NASA
Some recent graduates include uniformed officers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force, an executive director for a children's science museum, systems engineers with Orbital ATK and RadiantBlue Technologies, a C programmer at AT&T in New Jersey, physics high school teachers in Pennsylvania and Maryland, a programmer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, a physicist at Lockheed Martin, and a researcher working on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for California-based AeroVironment.
Many of our ASTRO majors pursue graduate education in astronomy. Recent graduates have gone to some of the finest graduate Astronomy programs including the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, California Institute of Technology, University of California Santa Cruz, University of Chicago, Universidad de Chile, University of Colorado, Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, University of Hawaii, Johns Hopkins University, Georgia State University, Louisiana State University, University of Maryland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Massachusetts, Princeton University, University of Texas, University of Wisconsin, and Cambridge University (UK).
Some students chose graduate departments in allied fields like Physics or Earth Sciences: University of Arizona (Astrobiology, Optics), University of Chicago (Physics), University of California (Geophysics), Ohio State University (Electrical Engineering), Brandeis University (Physics), University of California, Berkeley (Ecology), Arizona State (Geosciences), and Johns Hopkins (Geosciences).
Some alumni are now professors of astronomy or physics at major research universities, e.g., California Institute of Technology, University of Hawaii, University of Pennsylvania, University of Connecticut, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Other alumni are astronomers at NASA, Space Telescope Science Institute, Goddard Space Flight Center, and at various universities.