Q&A: Are there any programs where you can get an astronomy degree at least partly online or by mail?

Question by anonymous: Are there any programs where you can get an astronomy degree at least partly online or by mail?
And I know probably about a years worth already, I don’t want them to start me off with really basic stuff like the geocentric vs the heliocentric universe and I’ll be bored out of my mind.

Are there that are liberal in this regard, like pre-testing maybe?
Oh, and I can’t afford this stuff, too expensive. Are there any that give scholarships?

Best answer:

Answer by eri
Colleges don’t make you retake the basic stuff; you can skip ahead to whatever you want – it’s up to you to keep up. If you do find an online school, make sure it’s accredited. But it depends on what you want to do with the degree – you really can’t get a job doing astronomy with less than a PhD. You can teach community college with a masters, or work at a planetarium with a 4-year degree.

I’m glad I took the intro course though – even though I had been doing amateur astronomy for years, some stuff was still new – like the HR diagram and calculating distance scales from Cephieds. It’s an easy A if nothing else.

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