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Originally Posted by Stompy
Growing up, I'm sure we've all heard the, "You can be whatever you want to be as long as you work hard!" Is this true? If I'm doing CIS now, could I just up and decide to get a PhD in Particle Physics?
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Seeing as how you're doing CS, you probably have a fair math background as well as abstract problem solving skills. The jump isn't as great as you may think, although you'd probably fair much better as an experimentalist rather than a theorist (I'm talking out of my ass here, as I don't actually know you, so I'm basing my oppinions strictly on my understanding of CS).
If you were an art histroy major, on the other hand, I would say that you have no chance as a Particle Physicist. Not because art history majors are less intelligent, or more intelligent, but rather because art history majors don't tend to do a lot of the abstract math that would be required for any physics degree.
Furthermore, psychology tells us that toward the end of puberty, unused skillsets in the brain tend to get "pruned". For instance, if during the early developement of a child, they learn a lot of abstract math skills. However, like our art history major, during high school they gravitate toward history and art, rather then the sciences. This means that during the end of puberty, the synaptic pathways associated with abstract math tend to die out, or become "pruned". In college, our art major would have a difficult time in their math and science distributions, while excelling at art history.