delta_p_delta_x

This sounds like Auschwitz, holy shit. They had guards and sometimes other prisoners (who knew exactly what was going to happen) to lead the condemned prisoners to the gas chambers, to convince them to remove all their clothes and get ready for a shower that would never come.

Slaughterhouses and the death camps have a lot in common, beginning with a lot of death happening in both places.

I want people who think it's fun and have passion projects.

As a software engineer, I'd already write code for a living. I don't want to code again in my free time; I'd rather find something else that interests me.

To me, programming is fun insofar that it solves a problem, or implements something new or interesting. I don't want to have to 'think of side projects' just to get a hiring edge.

That's okay—that's what you value, fine by me.

I would be okay with being rejected by you, too, because I'd rather have a life outside of computing and software engineering, and take up things like hiking, astronomy, cooking, video games, and music, rather than sit at a desk and hammer away at code both in and out of work. Things are WFH now anyway, so I'd literally sit on a chair for > 12 hours. Can't be good for my health.

If I have side projects, they are more likely to be short (Power)shell scripts to automate random things, or something really obscure like LaTeX document classes, rather than multi-thousand-line projects. I can't be bothered to maintain such immense codebases.

Excellent—an astrophysics AmA! I've got a couple of questions, please bear with me:

I'm currently a conscript, having completed my GCE A Levels in 2015 with good grades in physics, chemistry and maths. I've got about a year left in military service, and I hope to study astrophysics in either the UK or US, come 2018.

What suggestions do you have for me, in terms of preparation for university, such as reading up material in advance, or personal statements, or mindsets to have? Are there any prerequisites that colleges look for, such as IOAA medals?

Next, assuming I actually get a degree in astrophysics, how's the job scope and market for a foreigner astrophysicist to the UK/US, given that I hold neither passports?

Thanks so much!

Thank you so much for the advice—I was planning to write my personal statement the exact way you said I ought not to, but now you've said it, I'd better go and fix it (heh).

Otherwise, yes, your reply was certainly very helpful, thank you very much.

One (or two) last questions: I'm really, really interested in exoplanetary research. What are your views on this? And is an astrophysics degree apt if I want to go into this sort of specialisation? It's so exciting every time I read that research teams have found Earth-size planets in the circumstellar habitable zones of nearby stars, or they've managed to decipher the compositions of giant exoplanet atmospheres through absorption spectroscopy. It genuinely feels like we're getting nearer and nearer to finding that perfect exo-Earth, with possibly ET on it!