Hi,

i'm an 18 year old student from Switzerland who will finish Gymnasium / High School next summer (main subj. : Mathematics and Physics, although it is mainly mathematics really).

I have a question which I hope you guys might be able to answer

My situation is that I'm coming closer to the point where I have to decide what to do with my life and what I want to study. My teachers always tell me that all doors are open for me, because I've really never had problems with school (I usually write A's, but of course that doesn't have to mean anything for the future..). My strongest subjects are languages, I like to read and write which of course might suggest studying something in that direction. I could also imagine studying Medicine or Chemistry (though Medicine has fallen behind a bit because then I would really have to almost give up my other "hobbies", it really takes that much time..). My "dream" though would be working in some way with Astronomy. Because of time issues I'm not really following astronomy actively (watching space at night etc), but I've always been very interested in this field of science - e.g. i've had to work on a physics project about how Hubble works (incl. light spectrums etc), and it was really great. I am good at Physics and Maths, but i'm not exactly "talented" or something like that. I also don't want to study Maths or Physics since I know that actual research in astronomy is too hard for me (our teacher told me that only the best of the best get a shot at it, and the others end up doing paperwork).

But is there also room in astronomy for jobs like as an electrical engineer (which I could study at ETH Zurich, which you might know)? Or are the chances for such a career in astronomy rather small?
For me the question is if it is worth taking the risk, or if I should just study one of the subjects I am relatively "sure" in doing well with and just do Astronomy as a hobby..

thanks in advance